Artist Profile : Terry Brennan
Story by MARY ELLEN THOMPSON
Photography by JOHN WOLLWERTH
In so many fields we, the consumer, see the sum of the parts but have no idea whatsoever, how they all came together to create something that pleases us; just think of all the individual flavors that constitute a bottle of wine, or a delicious summer salad, or mouthwatering barbecue sauce. Beaufort is a hot spot for creativity, both traditional and non-traditional. We probably have more artists, musicians, and creative people here than regular folk. With all the natural beauty that abounds, it’s no wonder inspiration strikes those so inclined to ply their craft.
Terry Brennan is a master of creating something out of practically nothing, or nothing that most people would recognize as an artistic component. He makes three dimensional animals, wildlife, and sea creatures out of driftwood and all sorts of recycled materials. It may be easy for some to see that a rake makes a pretty good rooster’s comb, or a mop as a horses tail, but that’s only when we can see the sculpture as a finished product. As a child, Terry liked to solve the puzzles in Highlights Magazine where you find the hidden elements in the picture – like the shovel disguised in the bark of the tree. In his sculptures, the elements are hidden in plain sight and challenge the viewer’s visual acuity because some of them are just so unexpected, such as a stiletto heel as the center of a fish, or spots on an animal that are actually poker chips.
Raised in New Jersey, Terry always liked to draw when he was a small child. “I’ve saved a drawing I did when I was three. My mom taught me the alphabet by drawing the letters to look like animals – ‘D’ was a turtle. I thought everyone could draw, I didn’t realize it was any special talent. When I was in seventh grade, I briefly considered mechanical drawing as a career because it seemed that I should do something that used my skills. When I was in tenth grade, my family moved to Dillon, SC and at that time murals on walls were very popular. I had a teacher who got me involved in painting murals in school hallways and cafeterias, which I really enjoyed. After high school I moved to Myrtle Beach where I worked in a sign shop and waited tables. It was there at Hooters, that I met my wife Wendy.
“I was trying to find a career that would suit my interests and my talents so I did a stint at Horry Georgetown Technical College, where I studied golf course management. Being a student had never been one of my strong suits and the introductory class there had nothing to do with golf course management, it was boring math. Once I realized the teacher took attendance at the end of class, I would go shoot pool, gamble for money, and slip into class during the last ten minutes so I could be counted.”
With that career option out of the way, Terry, Wendy and her two little boys moved to Savannah so that Terry could go to the Savannah College of Art and Design. “When we got there, I found out that the tuition was huge! Wendy, who makes friends with everyone she meets, met an antique dealer in Savannah who wanted someone to paint furniture for him; so I learned to paint furniture with different finishes. At the same time I got a job at the Savannah Mill Works where I learned more about woodworking; I was the radius guy! Both of those jobs really helped my creative side. But when we went back to Myrtle Beach for Christmas, our house in Savannah was robbed. I just couldn’t get over the feeling that the robbers knew just who we were, they’d seen photos of our family and since we had called the police I was concerned that they might try to keep us from finding out who they were. I just wasn’t sure that the family was safe so we moved back to Dillon. I had enjoyed the job at the Mill Works so I went to work in a cabinet shop in Florence where I became a master cabinet maker. I still wasn’t making enough money to support our family the way I wanted to so I went back to painting murals. People could understand the dollars per square foot they would spend for a mural better than they could understand the price of a painting.”
There were only so many murals that needed painting in Dillon at that time so Wendy and Terry opened a coffee shop; after a go at that, then they put the skills he had acquired as a cabinet maker and furniture painter together with his innate artistic sense and opened an antique store. “The antique store was exciting, we would buy pieces at an auction and put a little love into them and make some money. But then 9/11 happened and that was the end of that.” Meanwhile, Terry was painting. “I always did small paintings, they had pictures inside of pictures, parts inside of a part; I liked the discovery inside of a drawing. All humans love discovery; simple games are built on that premise, and my art is also.”
Terry’s work experiences took him to all sorts of places with a great deal of variety. He drove a potato chip route for a bit, moved back to Myrtle Beach where he waited tables and worked in another sign shop where he sandblasted signs – all of these pieces of his life added dimension to his creativity as an artist. After the death of his mother, Terry’s father and sister moved to Myrtle Beach and as a family they started their own business, the Artist Tree Studio, where they made signs, painted furniture and murals and sold art. About this time, Terry branched out into making sculptures, “I’ve always liked sculpture so I made a fish out of pieces of left over stuff. I let the random shape mimic the shape of the fish and then I painted it with bright colors. I wanted to power through the instinct of an object. I started to realize how fun and diverse the sculpture creatures were to make, how everyone is different. In the beginning I made fish, because all people connect with sea life. There’s not a place where fish don’t find their way in. So for that reason I’ll always make sea life, there are so many species. You wouldn’t think that something made out of coat hangers and broken toys would resemble a fish!” Terry explains how his pieces take form: “It begins with an instinctive shape. The pieces have to have a relationship to each other in each object; they must tell a story rather than just be a random assemblage.”
The Gallery on Bay Street in Beaufort showcases Terry’s art, and gallery owner Deanna Bowdish is one of Terry’s greatest fans. He has also done installations for the past three years at Art Prize in Grand Rapids, MI, shown at One Spark in Jacksonville, FL; he has demonstrated his technique at Artworks in Beaufort, and on Spring Island where people brought items and Terry fashioned them into sculpture while they watched. Recently Mayor Billy Keyserling gave American Idol winner Candice Glover a key to the city. Billy asked Jery Taylor, a local basket weaver, to make the structure of a key out of native bullrush; she affixed the bullrush to cardboard to stabilize it. Billy gave the key to Deanna, who gave it to Terry to paint a marsh scene in the center. Fox News captured the moment when Billy presented that basket to Candice and Terry’s art was there for everyone to see.
Just as he found the hidden objects in the puzzles he liked as a child, Terry sees the form, creativity and potential in every object he comes across. He can envision it in it’s natural form, or deconstructed and reworked to become something all together new and different. Connect with him on facebook at Artist Tree Studio and see where his vision takes him next.
