Friday, January 16, 1998
New Life
ART After venturing into the professional art world, Terri Rose
returns to UCLA to display her themes of birth, death and
psychological pain
in Kerckhoff’s newest art exhibit
By Vanessa VanderZanden
Daily Bruin Staff
Churning waves of pastel colors streaking down a huge white
canvas. Sharp contrasts between the harshness of varied textural
ingredients and a small, unintimidating frame. These images haunt
the walls of the Kerckhoff Art Gallery in these first bleak months
of the winter quarter.
"I deal with a lot of things that are like psychological pain,
experiences or hurts, but it isn’t morose or grotesque," art
student Terri Rose says of her work. "It’s crouched in beauty.
You’re looking at the miracle of life juxtaposed with darkness in
the paintings."
Opening this week, "Flesh and Spirit" centers around the work of
both Rose and her fellow senior art student, Charles Walker.
Rose is a returning student to UCLA hoping to express her
real-life experiences through her art.
"Coming back to the fine arts is what I’ve always wanted. I’ve
done this privately over the years on my own, and to me it’s like
therapy. I’m very honest in my artwork, and that reflects in the
show."
This honesty has allowed her to mature as an artist, something
central to the show’s basis. Though not an official jury show, the
pieces had to pass through the art council’s selection process.
However, Rose’s previous two years and a quarter at UCLA in the
’60s and ’70s have established her as a considerable force, having
shown paintings in Northern Lights as well as the Wight Gallery
last year.
"We’re sort of a rarified breed," Rose explains of herself and
the other 150 or so UCLA art students. "I’ve been trying to help
other seniors get their work shown before they graduate. I know we
have to just go out and make connections early before you even
leave your nest called UCLA."
The prospect of graduation has Rose swept up in "a whirlwind of
events" as she looks to the Art Center in Pasadena for a graduate
degree. Such a document may help Rose to secure a professorial job,
as it has helped many scholars teaching art at UCLA. She has
already taught through the extension program for six years between
her two UCLA enrollments.
During her time on the outside, Rose designed movie sets for
Aaron Spelling and others. She also did costuming, hand-painted
silks, surface design in Hong Kong and porcelains.
Yet, once she began living in Canada, she realized her desire
for painting. After working through concepts graphically and
exhibiting her work, she knew it was time to nurture her talent
through formal training. This mid-life decision has sparked Rose’s
new look on life which finds a forum through the art displayed in
Kerckhoff.
"I’m exploring a lot of symbiosis between male/female and
procreation. The things that we are inside and the things that we
are outside," Rose expounds. "It’s really the yin-yang between all
the dynamics that are male and female, and that’s what causes
procreation. So then when you’re dealing with life, then I’m also
dealing with death. Just black and white and inside and outside,
micro-macro. All of those opposing forces just really get me
going."
Though some of her work remains more blatant than others, most
pieces on display retain a subtle mixture of flesh colors that
spark a sense of allurement in the viewer. While one picture
focuses darkly on an interior graph of the fallopian tubes and the
birthing process, most brightly surge mere flows of color to
emphasize the physical aspect of life. On the other hand, the
pieces hung by Charles Walker suggest a spiritual existence dealing
with the genealogical line responsible for the birth of Christ.
"The ironic part is, sometimes his will take almost a vaginal
form which we think of as a flesh form, whereas mine gets hidden in
the ethereal, the ephemeral," Rose says the difference in the two
artists’ styles. "But my stuff is about the most base sexual things
between male and female, so again, we’re balanced in that kind of
yin-yang way, which is odd when you view it."
Such a take on life seems appropriate when one considers that
Rose has birthed four children. While the youngest attends eighth
grade, the oldest offspring attempts his first year at UCI.
Unsurprisingly, Rose continues her work in the community as well,
just recently having completed a block-long mural in San Pedro with
1,700 school children.
"That’s how I want to spend the rest of my life," Rose reflects,
"finding those bridges between male and female. Finding those
bridges between my young children and myself as an old person, and
myself in community."
ART: "Flesh And Spirit" opens today with an opening reception in
the Kerckhoff Art Gallery from 7 to 9 p.m. The exhibit will last
until Jan. 23. Admission is free. For more information, call (310)
825-1958.
GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
Charles Walker’s "Oracle" is on display at Kerckhoff Art
Gallery.
Photos by GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
"Flayed Martyr" by Terri Rose is on display at Kerckhoff Art
Gallery through Jan. 23.