TERI GANDY-RICHARDSON
my why + mindset

As an abstract painter, visual artist and a yoga teacher, my creative instincts mirror each other. Using the 8 Limbs of Yoga as a practical structure in my life and work, in the art that I make, it is my exclusive use of Levi’s denim that speaks to yoga’s first limb by highlighting our commonality, and connection through the community of our shared, yet individual intimacy with denim.

Considering yoga’s remaining limbs within my artwork, it is the awareness that I have of myself, my medium and physical practice that constitutes the expression in how I move, contort, use and reference the body that invites a familiar entry to the work. I’m interested in extracting and celebrating the truths within the frayed and weathered layers of who we are. My process is a meditative one as I move with breath to dissect, twist, tie, mold and adhere my worn Levi’s denim scraps. By using acrylic paint, I am able to push the depth, and highlight the gestures that are woven to build the sculptured reliefs that I make.  

Through the lens of denim’s less known history, I like to consider my use, arrangement, and manipulation of my medium as creating visual time capsules and time machines for considering our history with our beloved denim— with an acceptance of who we’ve been, and an understanding of who we could be.

@teri.artwork