Dr. Terry Sherer by Kelly Eddington (2010)

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Description Terry is an associate professor of education at Culver-Stockton College in Missouri and a tireless arts advocate, voracious reader, heroic teacher, and beloved friend. When I was an art teacher in northern Illinois, he was my principal, and our many hilarious conversations about everything under the sun were (and are) good for my soul. Books are one of my favorite things to paint, and they line the walls of Terry's sunlit dining room, which became an ideal setting for a portrait. Terry's cat Truman watched from a distance as my husband and I took reference photos. Later we coaxed him into modeling for us as well, but only for about a minute, as Truman had many things to do that day. Through the magic of painting, he now appears at his master's side, his eyes addressing the viewer as if to say, 'Interrupting this man's reading is unacceptable. If you have anything to say to him, you'll have to come through me first. Or something along those lines. I think there are around 200 books in this painting. I stopped counting at 135, and that was when I was nowhere near being done. Terry's books are more organized than most, but not maniacally so. I like that he displays photos and souvenirs on the shelf, and papers and magazines lie across some of the books. One shelf is devoted to new concepts in education while another boasts at least ten philosophy titles, but the majority of Terry's books here are novels. I enjoyed painting Penguin's logo over and over again (sort of) along with some of the more artistic spines, such as Underworld by Don DeLillo. Believe me; what you see here is the tip of Terry's literary iceberg.

Kelly Eddington, Monroe City, MO
Member Since February 2012
Artist Statement Ever since I was a child messing around with a terrible paint set from K-mart, I have been obsessed with controlling pigment suspended in water. Now I paint with beautiful, hand-made watercolors along with brushes ranging from high-end to dirt cheap, but the obsession remains. I create large, highly realistic portraits, still lifes, and landscapes using the most unpredictable, unstable, and unforgiving medium known to man. My paintings are time-consuming and sometimes backbreaking. I have always tried to take watercolor as far as it can go, and as a result my work resembles oil paintings in terms of color richness and detail. Hearing my viewers say, “THAT’S a watercolor?” always makes me smile.

I was an art teacher in two Illinois public high schools for seventeen years. Anyone who has ever been an art teacher with a limited budget knows that it is a profession that stretches a person's creativity to the absolute limit. Effective art teachers must know their subject inside and out and strive to develop their own artistic visions as they teach others. I feel that teaching has made me a better artist. I used to devote each year's "off-season" to creating my meticulous watercolors, and now I’m happy to produce them year round and offer them as prints on Imagekind!