October 2010 at the Chelmsford Library - Trina and John Teele

Trina Teele "Seeking Creativity"
Reception: Saturday 2, 2010
2-4 p.m.

Trina Teele | Artist's Statement:

Exploring the Creativity Process
The commitment to create Picasso once said, "Painting is just another way of keeping a diary."

I look at my work over the past 25 years and I agree. But for many of these years my paintings have come intermittently, often with long gaps of time in between. I’ve recently made a commitment to create something every day.

So why create? I wonder about this all the time. In fact, I ask myself the question daily. This is because I call myself an artist and I feel compelled to create. But sometimes I think “creativity—why bother? It’s all been done before. What am I hoping to do with it?”

I’ve found that being creative makes me feel good—like daily exercise or meditation. In my journal, I wrote:

“Painting can feel like riding a wave into shore. It is thrilling and has moments that feel ‘out-of-body.’ Like listening to music, it rouses an emotion. I love art, and when people look at my paintings, I hope they feel that same feeling that I do when I create them.“

With this realization, I began a daily “creativity” blog. Some days I sketch, some I paint and occasionally I’ll come across another outlet—like cooking, sewing, or gardening. I am trying to keep a constant outflow of creativity.

What to create? How? A college professor of mine once said, "you have to let go of the idea of having every sketch or painting be a masterpiece." With daily work, this is easy. The opportunity to loosen up and allow creativity to flow through comes naturally. And the question “what to paint (or create)?” becomes less daunting. Also, I once read that quantity yields quality. Keeping this daily commitment has fashioned quantity for me. I am slowly beginning to notice patterns, paths and directions in what I create. A message is able to come through all on it’s own. This is what I’d been hoping for! A style, not only in method and technique, but also in subject matter, is beginning to reveal itself.

That said, I’ve recognized a tendency in my artwork towards representational subject matter that is almost figurative (as opposed to landscape) in it’s simplicity. I look for strong, graphic darks and lights. I love emphasizing rhythmic shapes of bold color. With each media my approach differs and yields it’s own visual style, but the subject matter that inspires me seems to be consistent across media. Most recently, I’ve taken to doing an under painting with a thin acrylic wash, and layering it with a more loosely styled oil paint. This permits me the control and speed of acrylic with the depth and blending of oil.

Trina Teele | Artist’s Bio

Trina Teele grew up in Chelmsford, Massachusetts spending her summers in Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Long Island, NY. As a young child, she searched for what her purpose was and found a genuine connection towards art. As a teen, she learned she could communicate strong feelings through art and painted the first mural on the new walls of Chelmsford High School. Subsequently, her classmates voted her “most artistic.”

While in college Trina became aware of a duality in art. There was the powerful calculated art of the commercial world, and the unique and unexpected expressiveness of personal art. She embraced this duality and got a degree in both Graphic Design and Painting with a concentration in Art History from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

After graduation, Trina married John, her ‘high school sweetheart’, and entered into the corporate world as a graphic designer. In several years, they had two daughters. She reduced her hours to part time so she could better manage the new role of being a mother. At this time, she explored watercolor for the first time, finding it less messy with little children about. By the time her daughters were in middle and high school, Trina left the corporate world and opened her own freelance graphic design business. In her personal artwork she returned to using acrylic paints and found it surprisingly manageable after the brief period with watercolors.

With one child a sophomore in college and the other a junior in high school, Trina is exploring the question of why one needs art and creativity. This has led her to her current situation and commitment to daily creativity as evidenced on her blog (trinacreative.blogspot.com). She also maintains her graphic design business (www.teeledesign.com) and continues to study with local artists. She is a member and has served on the board of the Chelmsford Art Society. She participates routinely in local shows, exhibits, and art festivals.

Also exhibiting this month is John Teele