Building a Desert: a conversation with printmaker Britt Terrell
~originally published May 2018~
On a campus filled with colorful characters and big personalities, Britt Terrell stands out in a vibrant hue all her own. It radiates from her style, a mixture of thrifted vintage finds and more contemporary pieces; but mainly from her attitude, that of a passionate, contemplative art major with a concentration in printmaking.
Having lived in multiple states throughout her twenty-two years, she claims that she doesn’t have a hometown. Before moving to Alabama six years ago, the longest Terrell had ever stayed in one place was New York for four years. However, she doesn’t have favorable memories of New York because of the kind of person it made her. “I feel like it’s a toxic relationship,” she explained. “Like when you’re in it, you don’t know that it’s bad for you, and when you’re out of it you can look back and see how bad it was.”
While in New York, Terrell attended an arts high school but hadn’t yet grasped her personal style or felt any support from the faculty. She says being at Montevallo was the first time that she felt like she could call herself an artist because she was finally doing what she wanted and being encouraged to do so. As an art major, Terrell has explored the different mediums and found her niche in printmaking.
“I think printmaking is what I love doing most because it’s kind of everything in one.” She explained. “You can do it in drawing form or it can be kind of painterly, sometimes even sculptural if you’re carving.”
She draws inspiration from her memories and travels; specifically going out west to the deserts. A recent trip took her to Salvation Mountain, an art site preserved in the California Desert, and inspired its own collection of prints.
“It’s just this huge mountain covered in paint.” She explained. “It’s supposed to be a religious symbol, but I’m not religious, so I think my take on it is that I worship it in a way that is not about God. I just kind of worship it as this folk-art masterpiece.”
In addition to printmaking, she has recently started screen printing her work on clothing, embroidering others and selling them through Instagram. Terrell was partly inspired by her boyfriend who buys vintage clothing from thrift stores and sells and them through Instagram. When thrifting for herself, she would find things in different sizes; but instead of just reselling them, she would find different ways to incorporate her art into the clothing.
As a graduating art major, she will be displaying her work in a BFA exhibition along with three other seniors. The work she’ll be showing are pieces that she’s made during her time at the university, along with newer pieces like a makeshift patchwork quilt she’s sewn out of blocks of different fabrics.
“They’re dealing with themes of memory, nostalgia, and retrospection; self-portraiture in kind of an abstract way,” Terrell said about the collection. “And I’m including some older works like Salvation Mountain and another series called the Salt and Sea series.”
So what’s next for the printmaker? Well, after being rejected from every graduate school she applied to, she laughs, she’s decided to take a year off from school to build up her portfolio and work.
“I think it’s because grad schools for art, they want to see a more cohesive body of work. I think my portfolio right know looks too undergrad, everything looks like it it’s from a class rather than I’ve just been in the studio making my own work.”
With her parents living in Nashville, she plans to occasionally go up and make connections with other artists in the art scene there. After graduation, she will still have access to the university’s studio spaces to work on her art, so it looks like she’ll be calling Montevallo home for a little while longer.
To see more of Terrell’s artwork, visit her website here.
To shop Terrell’s vintage finds, visit her Instagram here.