BRATTLEBORO — “March Into Spring,” an exhibit of still lifes, geometric paintings, and painted gourds by local artist Terry Carter, is showing in gallery spaces at All Souls Church during March and April.
Carter received formal training in painting at the Art Institute of Boston and the Great River Arts Institute in Bellows Falls, and has shown in galleries around the area. This is her first solo exhibition.
“But I have always done art,” she says. “Even when I was a rambunctious little child, my mother would put me at my father's desk and place a pencil in my hand, forcing me to concentrate and draw. Recently going through my mother's old stuff, I found that she had saved many of those drawings from so many years ago.”
Carter contends that she comes from a long line of New England craftspeople, in a culture that placed high value on hard work and learning through apprenticeship.
“For generations my family learned their craft through apprenticeships, including my father, who worked in tool and die,” she says. “I am a descendant of James Bennett, a contractor for the construction of Dartmouth College. People claim they went to some prestigious Ivy League college, I tell them my ancestor built one.”
She adds, “As my New England lineage goes back very far, I had a childhood rich in Early American history. Perhaps consequently, I am especially drawn to early American art.”
Her still lifes in particular reflect the primitivism of early American art, as well as the art of Anna Mary Robertson Moses, better known as Grandma Moses, one of her inspirations.
“It is strange, but these seemingly simple works of mine are actually quite difficult to create,” she says. “They require a deceptively complex craft.”
Her abstract paintings in the show reveal her affinity with geometry: “I was always fascinated by geometry, the one subject I really did well with in school. As a very visual person, I can instinctively design abstract figures, without measurements,” she says.
In addition to the still life and geometrical paintings in the show, Carter also specializes in landscapes and portraits, which she has painted throughout her life. However, she began painting gourds only later in her life.
“My fascination with gourds began in the early 1990s with their wide range of shapes and porous surfaces. I got interested in gourds when, at the Brattleboro Farmers' Market, I discovered one that someone had painted into an animal image. No two gourds are alike because each design is based on the specific gourd's shape and texture. The individual gourd shape tells me how I should paint it.
“The gourd will sit on my shelf for months or even several years before I get the inspiration to paint it. Preparing of the gourd for painting is a time consuming process. The gourd must dry for almost an entire year. Then I scrape off its epidermis, after which I apply a series of primers and varnish before I am able to paint the object. I have evolved this prepping process so now more of the natural textures of the gourd are able to shine through,” she says.
The gourd has a special significance to Carter:
“Archaeologists dig up gourds from very early grave sites, and have proved important items in various ancient cultures, where they are often used as bowls or pitchers to retain fluids. They are known in innumerable cultures as representing ancient Mother Earth. With its round form in various shapes, and womb-like interior with an abundance of seeds, the gourd becomes the perfect representation of the matriarch godhead. This serves to inspire me. Using ancient iconic symbolism and making them aesthetically pleasing, I paint these gourds in the hope that I can invoke the ancient Mother Earth within.”
Carter enjoys telling people art is her profession, and psychiatry her hobby. She says, “I have had a lifelong fascination with iconic images and symbols, and have done extensive reading in the subject. The writing of Jung was very important to me, especially his ideas of the collective unconsciousness. He validated my instinctive attraction to ancient symbols and that they have proven to possess universal meaning.”
Carter says her mission with her painted gourds is “to invoke the stronger matriarch component so as to bring forth a more healthy and egalitarian culture. My art is committed to reintroducing the power of the domestic world.”
As an artist who is also a mother raising a young child, she found this idea not only theoretical but practical. She says, “I found working on my gourds an ideal medium because I could do it right there in my own domestic space at my kitchen table.”