By Keith Waits.
Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Keith Waits.
All rights reserved.
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| Teri Dryden. Photo by Mack Dryden. |
An artist’s journey is most
often an irregular path following emotional or at least instinctual cues – as
much or more than logic or rational processes. In the case of Teri Dryden, the
first steps were into performance in a populist vein, earning laughs working as
a professional clown. Yet today her creativity expresses itself in visual art,
in collage work that is delicate and controlled.
The contrast that one finds
in the two occupations may capture a duality that is not uncommon in many
artists, and one can still detect the taste for mischief and low humor
discernible in the twinkle of Ms. Dryden’s eye. “I love slapstick!”
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| Monteith's Marrakech. |
So her skills as an acrobat
and pantomime led her to the Ringling Brothers clown college in Florida. After
graduation she received a contract to perform with the legendary circus itself,
touring for two years before “retiring” at the tender age of twenty-one. Eventually
her acting ambitions led her to Los Angeles, where she had meaningful impact as
a stage actress, marrying comedian and actor Mack Dryden and eventually turning
her attentions from the outgoing, more extroverted energy of performing to the
more intellectual and introspective expression of an abstract artist.
The transition was actually
more gradual, with early work that consisted of highly representational
drawings. But eventually she gave in to a fascination with texture and
fundamental forms – a well-traveled path for so many artists; for surely it is a
rare few that move in the other direction, switching from abstract to
representational.
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| Nightfall. |
Her most recent collages are
a fascinating use of discarded books, using worn fragments of pages, flyleaf
and endpapers, and cloth binding to create compositions that draw the viewer’s
attention in the same manner in which a bibliophile is drawn to rare volumes.
The structures – mostly, but not always, vertical – are divided by horizontal
breaks and changes in material, becoming an abstract memory of the classic
design of leather-bound tomes occupying library shelves for thousands of years.
The raw materials often
incorporate damages that devalue the book but introduce unexpected organic
beauty into the formalism of the rigidly stacked blocks and textured lines.
These random elements, tears, stains and the occasional remnant of a worm or
some other insect who has made a meal of the parchment, as captured by the
artist’s eye, deliver idiosyncratic visual interference that sometimes lead to
less abstract, even pictorial imagery. Ms. Dryden may be committed to the
abstract, but these literal notes, whimsical and suggestive, prove equally
compelling for their unexpected inclusion in her compositions.
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| Sacred Music. |
As is typical of so many
artists who utilize cast-off and salvaged materials (the books are discarded
from libraries), the artistic choices are informed by the inherent qualities of
the raw components. Yet she assiduously avoids the most obvious and omnipresent
visual element of published materials: text. “Words are much too literal”, she
says. “The viewer needs to discover things for themselves, so I’m reluctant to
include anything like that.”
In the end, there is care
and respect in how the materials are appropriated – no sense that the artists
has violated the integrity of the bound volume or its contents, but instead,
given the torn and faded elements new meaning and purpose. A new life.
Terri Dryden
will be the speaker at Louisville Visual Art Association’s next Food for
Thought luncheon, Tuesday, July 10, at noon at The Louisville Water Tower.
Reservations are $25, or $15 for LVAA members, and must be made by noon on Monday,
July 9. Lunch is provided from Café Fraiche.
Call 502-896-2146 or visit http://www.louisvillevisualart.org/food.html.
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