Terry Warpinski, David Graham, and NewARTSpace

 

"Strategies at the Edge, Steens Mountain" by Terri Warpinski

"My work isn't made to be commercial, it's really about things that I care about. "

Terry Warpinski told us that she has been self-identifying as an artist since she was three years old, but what that meant for her didn't develop until after she had been through years of skill-building, and finding her voice. I relate to that feeling of certainty and uncertainty together, I think- how being an artist feels like the right call before you actually know how, or why, you do it. Warpinski's passion for her topics shows through her photographs and photo collages, which explore the relationship between people and space, and points of intersection, shown through the stories that geography can tell. 

Along with fellow artist/photographer David Graham, Warpinski co-created their NewARTSpace: a nonprofit studio/gallery space where featured artists receive all of the profit from their work. NewARTSpace celebrates art for its connection to the artist, while also encouraging artists to find ways to live off their art- in other words, to make some of their art commercial. It is a mass of contradictions that Terri herself voiced during the artist talk she gave with David Graham on Wednesday, which questions things like the value of art- is it valuable as a product or a process?- and the reason for art,- for the artist or for the consumer? Undoubtedly, NewARTSpace declares that the answer is both, and always in flux. 

"'You see, Dad, Professor MacLuhan says the environment that man creates becomes his medium for defining his role in it.'"

- Marshall MacLuhan, The Medium is The Massage