We recently connected with Terry Hays and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Terry, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
Coming from small town Texas, a deeply religious family (my father was a minister) it didn´t take long after high school to figure out I was pretty much a lost soul. In and out of college courses as a freshman and sophomore… none of the courses I signed up for holding my interest and eventually pretty much just became a drop out. I was definitely up to no good and headed in the wrong direction. Realized pretty quickly I needed to call my parents and ask if I could come back home. Of course they said yes…they could tell I was on the edge…said I could stay as long as I wanted but I had to get a job. Now I was living in Amarillo, the Texas panhandle. In the neighboring small town of Canyon was West Texas State University, a small college with a small art department, a dedicated faculty that offered lots of support and encouragement…I was hooked. I realized the only thing that held my interest for any length of time was drawing…I would copy images out of magazines spending hours with pencil and paper making sure I copied the image as best I could. It was the only thing I really enjoyed doing so I guess I had no choice. That was when I decided I would try to become an artist…it has been a long journey…ups and downs…but no regrets.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Shortly after undergrad school I was drafted. Released from the Army two years later, I eventually found myself enrolled in grad school at TCU in Fort Worth. Extremely small grad program at the time…really great…lots of personal contact with my faculty advisors and an atmosphere of show up, put in the studio time and stay open to criticism. Don´t remember much that was said but I do remember them emphasizing to students the need to show up everyday, work and things will happen.
After grad school I accepted a teaching position at the University of Manitoba School of Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and taught painting and drawing for eight years before finally returning back to my home state of Texas. Kathy(who is Canadian) came with me and we finally settled in Dallas. She soon started her career as an artist/art and antique restorer and I eventually found my way into the Dallas scene shops. Dallas scene shops were thriving with stage production business at the time as well as a growing movie and television filming industry. I spent eight years at Dallas Stage Scenery working on various stage productions for Dallas Opera, NEA, Mary Kay, San Antonio Coronation etc. and later freelance scenic for movies and television. etc. Being freelance is what allowed me to eventually get back into my own work.
Getting back into my own work however was a real struggle. Painting sets for theater and various stage productions involved long hours and was physically exhausting. The last thing I wanted to do with my time off was be involved in any kind of painting that reminded me of work. Also, I found myself not wanting to think about art or my reasons for making art. All I wanted to do was go into my small studio and relax, escape and just paint. I had to try to disconnect from work and reconnect with my art in a fresh new way that didn´t remind me of being on the job. Plus, like I mentioned I didn´t want the pressure of making art, I didn´t want to think about it. I just wanted to paint and make stuff without any kind of judgement on the end product. I spent a lot of time looking at street art, Japanese tattoos, outsider art, Chinese costumes, aboriginal art…anything that I found was interesting, trying really hard to stay away from looking at art whether it be past or present. At the time the one piece I found myself looking at the most was The Throne of the Third Heaven by James Hampton. Truly an amazing piece and still one of my all time favorites. A perfect example of a spiritually driven passionate work by an outsider artist who offered unpretentious work made almost completely from found objects. The inspiring scale also offered the hint of it being part of a much larger plan, suggesting possibly it was merely the first act of a larger theatrical stage production. This piece opened the door and allowed my theater experience to slowly creep into my own work and even to this day the theatrical influence is almost always present.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
When I am given the opportunity to show my work people often say to me….I really like your work but what in the #@*%!! am I suppose to do with something like that! I completely understand. It must be confusing at times to the viewer because they can´t hang it on the wall or it is way to big for their living room. I find myself trying not to think about those kind of things and work hard to stay focused on the vision. There is no guarantee that even if I do try to create a more commercially acceptable piece that it will find an owner. As artists we are constantly struggling to find a way to tell our story…that may involve stepping away from traditional formats and finding your own form of expression. You have to do what is right for you. Stay focused, work hard… you will be able to clarify the vision.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I am concerned that because of all the noise and distractions we encounter daily we fail to see everything that is going on around us. The political divide, the urban/rural disconnect, racial conflict, climate change, poverty, world hunger, greed, war, etc.etc.etc. Sometimes I think my work is about trying to show us everything that is there that we don´t see. All the stuff out there that we pass by daily and simply block out. It is overwhelming, we just walk past it quickly because it is too painful to see. I struggle with trying to show all of it ….everything that is out there…I´m just trying to remind us that if we just stop and look we will have a much clearer vision of all the wonderful things around us we all need to work hard to improve and save.
Contact Info:
- Website: terryhays.com
- Instagram: @terry_hays
- Facebook: Terry Hays
- Linkedin: Terry Hays
Image Credits
Teresa Rafidi