We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Terri Connelly a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Terri, appreciate you joining us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your creative career?

Communication and connection with people. Seeking to understand before understood. I wanted to be a full-time artist from a young age. However, I also knew I wanted to be able to support myself. I went into the corporate world while on the side continued to create and paint knowing at some point, I would have enough invested to be able to paint full time. What my years in the corporate world taught me is discipline. Goal setting and focusing in on the task at hand. How to manage my energy so that I can be the best I can be. It also taught me how to accept failures, to dust myself off and bounce back. There are so many lessons, but I will go back to the ‘seek to understand before understood’. In my art practice I for example if doing a commission piece, listening to my client and understanding what is it that they want from the piece and then how do I convey that in my work so that it is understood. I see myself as a storyteller conveying the story through images.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My art journey started at a young age. Influenced by my mom and Dad’s artistic talents and further by my educators, friends and peers. As a young girl I was terrified to read aloud when called upon in school, I thought there was something not right with me.  However, I found ways to work around this fear and I would volunteer to go first to get it out of the way. Our Mom was wise and what she did is have each one of us kids pick out a news article from the paper and read it aloud to the family at the dinner table. We were a large family, so it helped combat the fear while also being current with the news! A couple of other ways to manage my insecurities was focusing in on athletics and drawing and painting. Later in my readings and education I learned the two things most people feared was speaking in public and dying, so maybe there wasn’t something out of the ordinary with me after all; however, I think that might get challenged. LOL.  I still struggle and am afraid that I would pronounce a word or name incorrectly. My husband says I have my own language. Well focusing in on my art I sold my first pieces of work to my grade 4 teacher, a painting of birch trees and the other was a little card I made of an angel climbing a ladder with a pale of paint and brush in her hand. In grade 8 my music teacher commissioned me to do a painting for his first-born’s nursery and, my French teacher stopped our lesson to talk about how well I was able to paint hands after seeing a piece of my work hanging the school hallway and gave us all a lesson on Michelangelo and is study of hands.

My father left our family when I was four years old, and my mom put her artistic talents aside to raise 6 kids on her own. She was always encouraging and supportive but left our decisions of where we wanted to go in our education and career paths. So, after grade 13 I decided to enroll and was accepted into Sheridan College School of Applied Arts and Technology. At one point I wanted to be an illustrator and thought this a good avenue. After my first year at Sheridan while the instructors where talented I did not find it a fit for me at that time in my life to help me grow as an artist.  I was looking for encouragement and creative thinking beyond the norms or what was traditionally accepted. Don’t get me wrong, I did learn valuable skills and techniques and I take accountability for my decisions. I do believe you always can learn something, and a big lesson learned that I carry with me to this day is do not be late in your submissions. So, I decided to join my boyfriend on a trip to the West Coast in an old police station wagon. Traveling across Canada and seeing the magnificence in the changing geographical landscape with each province having its unique beauty and then once arriving at the West Coast I knew this is where I needed to be. I instantly connected to the landscape, wildlife and people. To this day whenever I travel as soon as I fly over those mountains and see the ocean I breathe in home. 

I am a practical functional person and after seeing how my mother and other women struggled, I made the decision that I needed to always be able to support for myself even though I had a loving husband. My art took a back seat while I pursued a corporate career in leadership full-time and raising our two beautiful boys. However, I always made time to draw, paint and take part-time studies through continuing education at local Colleges and Workshops and Art Studios. I am a forever learning and I continue to study with Master Artists from around the globe through Mastrius.com.

I believe it is never too late to pursue your dreams and so in June 2022 I left my corporate career and became a full-time artist. I have been told I am a good storyteller and I like my canvas to be a page or chapter in a story. Furthermore, most important to me is that the story becomes the viewers, a story that is greater than my own.

Whenever I paint a subject, I like to research it and understand it, this helps me connect and convey. In 2004 while working full-time, studying constantly, running from a hockey arena to a soccer field and baseball field I started on a painting for a friend. I needed to research Birch and Aspens trees. I came across the Celtic Druid philosophy of the connection of nature and trees with characteristics of humans. I thought one day I will do a Celtic Tree Series. Well other ports of my life came first that vision stayed clear in my mind, it was just on hold until 2022. Joining the North Van Arts community, connecting me to a fabulous Studio and Gallery which just so happens to be a famous Celtic Jeweler Designer. I thought this was meant to be, Keith Jack allowed my work to be displayed in his Gallery and this continues today. I have my Celtic Tree Series of which 3 originals have sold from the gallery, along with some of my other works of bears and prints and cards. I am so excited that this fall I will be releasing my new series ‘Respect our Neighbours’. This series is about us learning to co-exist with our beautiful intelligent human like neighbours as we continue to develop and play in their backyards and homes. I bring awareness through humour and compassion forming a partnership of respect.  This show will be through the North Shore Art Crawl October 13-15th, 2023.

My work is primarily acrylic on canvas with some collage worked into some pieces. I love acrylic for the versatility; colours I can achieve and speed.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I always believed in spending my energy wisely. Working full-time, my husbands job working shifts or long hours I learned to get the boys into bed at 8 am. I would go to bed at that time as well, set the alarm and be up at 12 am, paint away for 3 hours of uninterrupted time, then back to bed for a couple more hours before I was up and out the door to my full-time job. My husband would get the boys off to daycare or school in the morning and I would start my work early 6:00 am and leave at 3 pm to meet the boys after school, get them fed and then off to the playing fields. It took great partnership with my husband. We sure did our share of crying and laughing. Thank goodness we all have a great sense of humour. Nutrition and exercise were key. Later as the boys got older, I was able to get out and go for a run in the morning with our dog. This is where I would do all my problem solving of what I knew was on my plate for the day.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I am a sponge for learning and an avid reader. I would call this my roadside MBA. I have the actual book that I still intend to fully read by the end of this year.

There are so many books and conferences that I attended over the years that certainly have influenced me. On my top shelf that I reserve the right to change over time I would list these:

‘People Skills- by Robert Bolton. I would read this on my way into work on the bus. It would make me laugh and cry. Lessons learned here, always let the people you care about and love that you tell them this. Don’t wait until they are dying or died. The other was that we all react differently to situations-it was about burnt toast and how one might have a melt down and another just scrape it off and get on with it. It is the understanding of differences.

The Power of Full Engagement-by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. We cannot change the number of hours in a day, but we can form habits around our energy. This is a supper book I absolutely connected with.

Seven Habit of Highly Effective People, The Eighth Habit, The Speed of Trust and 4 Disciplines of Execution. The Covey influences is so massive to me. I remember lying in bed reading chapters and how much I related to the stories. Ending with the 4 Disciplines of Execution that is so pivotal in helping me achieve goals.

The Coaching Habit-Michael Bungay Stainer. A book that coaches you in saying less, ask more and change the way you lead forever. We are all leaders when we are an artist or owner of small business. This book is key to communication and saving time.

There are many other, but this is what is on my top shelf!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.paintingsbytewc.com
• Instagram: tewc.art
• Facebook: Terri Connelly
• Linkedin: Terri Connelly

Image Credits
Anita McComas amazing artist that has mentored me provide photo of baby grizzly which I expanded on to create a story of ‘Keeping them together’ All other paintings are from my own photos.