teri.statement
TERI GANDY-RICHARDSON
my why + mindset
photo: elizabeth brown eagle
“I work in denim— and, I believe that our shared, yet individual intimacy with it offers a bridge.”
The creative instincts that I share as an abstract visual artist and yoga teacher, mirror each other. Using the Eight Limbs of Yoga as a practical structure in my life and work, my exclusive use of Levi’s denim charges each piece with material memory, identity, historical contexts and connections that are current.
Considering yoga’s remaining limbs, my artwork references the human body within themes of awareness, physicality, expression and focused attention. Interested in extracting and celebrating the truths within the frayed and weathered layers of who we are, my process is meditative. Moving with breath to dissect, twist, tie, mold and adhere my worn Levi’s denim scraps, I am able to push the depth of the sculptured reliefs that I make with acrylic paint.
Through the lens of denim’s less known history, my use, arrangement, and manipulation of my medium creates visual time capsules and time machines for embracing our roots and the history of our beloved denim— with an acceptance of who we’ve been, and an understanding of who we could be as a whole.