Terry Rose
Terry Rose describes himself as an alchemist “transmuting something common into something special.” Inspired by the moment of reaction and change, he produces worlds of matter in flux, or in the state of becoming. He works with litho ink and micron pigments on wet varnish to create organic blossoming forms in glittering space. Suspended in varnish, the dry pigments appear to burst and float, and the color and texture of the entire panel shifts when viewed from different angles. Rose works quickly and intuitively, because he often loses control of the pigment as it bleeds into the wet varnish. The element of chance that arises from this process is vital, and in fact he relies on controlled accidents to create his morphing forms, which resemble cellular matter, aquatic scenes, geodes, fossils, mushroom clouds, and cosmological phenomena. This parallel universe could just as easily be a glimpse from the Hubble Space Telescope as the view from an electron microscope. With these seductive panels Rose transforms the raw materials of pigment and varnish into spectacular cotton candy-colored or deep space worlds which directly reference the moment of creation.
Terry Rose resides in Providence, RI
Image: Terry Rose, Beginning Again, 2006, oil, mic ron pigment, varnish on aluminum panel, 36” x 32”, Private Collection
