Evelyn Patricia Terry: Her Journey to Becoming a Prominent Artist

When I walked into Evelyn Terry’s 1904 vintage house in Milwaukee’s inner city, I noticed artworks displayed on every wall. The artist Evelyn Terry emerged from her garden. She wore an engaging smile. She may be 78, but appeared in remarkable shape, humble, loquacious, and delightful to be around. I wanted to talk about her art. She has created artworks in diverse media—oil painting, printmaking, mixed media monotypes, sculpture, installations, collage, public art and even her own books. 

But first Terry took me into a small room off the dining room. I was standing next to Milwaukee’s internationally acclaimed artist, and she wanted to pay tribute to partner and artist George Ray McCormick, who died suddenly in 2009. The walls were adorned with McCormick artworks, dolls from carved wood and saturated with acrylic and watercolor hues – and sculptures welded from trash metals.  

“George was my boyfriend,” she told me, “and I loved him. We had a good relationship, and he inspired me. Back then, someone had set my house on fire, and I had to move out. People had been breaking in and stealing my furniture, my artwork, my washer and drier. When I moved back in, I decided to dedicate this small studio to George. I covered the walls with his artworks. Then, I converted most of the first floor into the Terry McCormack Art Gallery that features my work and the artwork of others.” 

A few minutes later, we settled onto a long couch in the living room. It was the only place to sit since her house was filled with drawings, files, frames, notebooks and the art tools of her trade.  

Where did you grow up? What schools did you attend? What was your family like? 

I grew up in this house, my mother’s house. I went to 20th Street School and graduated from North Division High School where there were mostly Black students. I was quiet, and I did not fit in, but now I talk a lot. (laughing).  

Were you interested in art in high school? 

No, I did what my mother told me to do. I took home economics classes, sewing and cooking. My mother was very good at both. We were a well-fed family. My dad was around, but he was very quiet. But I knew I could draw because I did it as a hobby, even helped other kids with their drawings. 

Did you go to college after you graduated from high school? 

At first, I went to the technical college, MATC. I was doing poorly, and I cried a lot. I felt bad about being Black at MATC. This was the 1960s. In one psychology class, I was the only Black student. The teacher told us Asians were the smartest. Caucasians were also smart because they ran the country and the business world. Black people were lazy and not good at anything. I retreated and kept to myself.  

How did you end up at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee? 

When other MATC students transferred to UWM Milwaukee, I did too. I majored in Home Economics because my mom wanted me to. I did make some colorful and complicated patterns in sewing, but I didn’t like interior design. I took a class called Related Art. At the end of the class, my teacher said, “Evelyn, I think you’re an artist. You should get a degree in drawing.” I went immediately to the art department in Mitchell Hall. The first thing I saw was a guy printing on a printing press. I said, “Wow.” The world opened up to me. I felt sunshine. After a few setbacks, I ended up in the UWM art school. I did not care if I was Black or a woman. I just wanted to do art. I majored in Printmaking, and I now have three advanced degrees in Printmaking as part of my arts education. My influences were Picasso and Andy Warhol. I didn’t care about their crazy personal lives. I was interested in the volume and diversity of work they turned out. I also discovered some Haitian and African Negro artists I admired. They did original stylized work 

You started out as a printmaker. When did you expand from printmaking into other art mediums? 

As an undergrad, I had an instructor who told me my drawings were different from my paintings. My drawings were looser. He showed me how to make my paintings look like my drawings. I got two degrees from UWM. Ruth Milofsky, a UWM professor, hired me to teach residents at the Hillside Public Housing project. The students were of all ages. Later, I taught art at Urban Day School. I also started selling my art in different places. I won awards. I wrote art reviews for newspapers. I even had my first art gallery exhibit. Anyway, Ruth Milofsky died of cancer in 1981, and I co-curated her final art show. She put the proceeds of the sale into a trust fund for me. I was divorced with two children, and this money helped me get into the School of Art Institute of Chicago where I got my MSA master’s degree in printmaking. 

You work in all art mediums, but you once commented, “I love the softness of an oil painting that allows you to truly create a mood in a way no other medium can.” 

I like the creaminess of oil paintings. Oil paints are easily blended. So are pastels. Acrylic paint is more hard-edged. I like the paints you can blend together, the viscosity. I don’t do much oil painting, but years ago, I did 12 portraits for Miller Brewing. They selected Black people who were lawyers and judges from all over the country and then displayed them.  

Here is a fragment of a quote regarding your art creations. “Telling a story about something that I feel.” For example, let’s talk about your series of works, the colorful scribblings. You said you were inspired by “the excitement of being in love.” 

Being in love was one of the inspirations. I was working for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. I was helping them diversify the graphic division staff. It was a strenuous job. I was dealing with people who did not want to be diversified. I was also getting mixed messages from my two bosses. I left there after nine months. After that experience, I decided to draw the way I wanted to draw, working with straight lines, using a ruler. Meanwhile, I was in love with a guy in Chicago, but he was in love with his ex-wife and another lady. I dumped all my frustrations into my painting, which became an abstraction. A new style came out of this, my scribbles and smears series, lines of excitement. Each artist has their own drawing style. It’s like handwriting or a fingerprint. I worked with this scribbles style for 20 years.  

Another quote from you, “I could make art and disappear into a realm separate from whatever was happening around me that was horrible.” Can you elaborate? 

I’ve been feeling bad about something lately regarding some of my family members. I couldn’t get the negative feeling to go away. I have lots of artwork in my head, but I haven’t got all of it out. Not long ago, I took a class at the Bindery on binding books. I was having trouble with creating the tiny holes that help secure the binding to the page signatures, and my adrenaline was way up. I finally completed the task, and I left exhilarated. I was totally back in the zone, meaning my mental distractions had gone away. 

I’m a seasoned photographer, passionate about my craft. Same is true with my writing. I can get lost in those two crafts—my worries left at the side of the road. Kind of like meditation. It’s a relief to not think about the outside distractions and bad things happening in the world.

I feel that whenever I am visually working, emotionally and spiritually, I’ve crossed over to the other realm. I thought I had lost it, but now I have it back, and I can block everything else. 

You have a permanent sculpture at Mitchell Airport. How did that come about and what is it about? 

Oh, yes, the Mitchell Airport sculpture. Let me first give you some background. In 1985, I was thinking of exploring other areas of art besides printmaking. I started doing installations. The first installation I did was on Water Street, and I did another in an alcove at UWM college. I also have a sculpture on 21st and North, the bus shelter next to that big church. When I created that one, my boyfriend, George McCormick, helped with the welding. I also had a team helping me including the muralist Ammar Nsoroma, who did the bus shelter drawing. 

But what about the Mitchell Airport sculpture? 

That project came up about the same time as the bus stop installation. I was interested in the diversity of the city of Milwaukee, and how residents make up varying ethnic groups. Ethnicity is connected to the Summerfest grounds with the Irish the Mexican and German festivals. That is why I designed the panels of the sculpture to reflect the different ethnic groups. A symbol for each group. I see the sculpture as the gift of ethnicity to the world. 

The style of the sculpture reminds me of your other artworks, the pattern of lines. 

I love lines. A linear style. I’ll never give up those lines in my work. When I was married, my husband and I went to Florida for two years. He was getting his Ph.D. there. Grasses were all around. I painted grasses because I loved their lines. 

Beside Andy Warhol and Picasso, are there any other artists who have inspired you? 

Faith Ringgold is one. I once visited her in New York. She later came to Milwaukee. But she recently died at the age of 93. She is quite famous in the art world. Faith has amazing diversity in her work. 

Another influence is Freida High W. Tesfagiorgis, former art professor at UW Madison. She sometimes comes to Milwaukee because she is involved with the Bronzeville Center for the Arts.  I used to meet with her to get feedback on my work. I need to have somebody to talk to about my work. 

You are a full-time professional artist, and you have artwork in more than 500 public, private, and corporate collections. How did you manage to gain such widespread recognition? 

Artists are rarely recognized in the cities they come from unless they live in New York or Paris. I had to figure how to get my work out into the world. I exhibited my work in as many art fairs as I could. Rejections did not matter. I also had, at one time, seven art dealers representing my artworks around the country. I had connections through my friends who helped me gain recognition. Doing business is part of my art world. Don’t forget I have been creating art for 50 years. 

The sign on your front door reads ‘Be Nice or Leave.’ Tell me how that came about.  

I’ve worked on being rich, not in money, but rich in terms of my life. When I pray and ask God for something, it shows up. I think Della Wells or George McCormick brought me that sign from an art fair in Alabama. I always tell people, “You can come to my house and visit, but you have to be nice.” I don’t tolerate profanity in my home or gallery. If visitors swear or argue, I ask them to leave. That’s the story about my front door sign, Be Nice or Leave. 

For more information on Evelyn Terry, visit her website.

Terry has created a series of 30 art books titled, “America: Guess Who Came to Dinner and Stayed.”  

Public collections that contain Terry’s artwork include Marquette University’s Haggerty Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Racine Art Museum, Museum of Wisconsin Art, Beloit College Wright Museum of Art, Swarthmore College Libraries, Duke University Perkins Library, Rhode Island School of Design Fleet Library, Baylor University, Stanford University Bowes Art & Architecture Library, and the Smithsonian. 

Her artwork has been shown in invitational, and juried exhibitions including the Bainbridge Island Art Museum in Seattle, the Cedarburg Art Museum, the Charles Allis Art Museum, and the Whitney Museum in New York. Internationally, she had a U.S. Embassy Moscow solo exhibition in Russia and has shown in group exhibitions where work was bought by people Japan, Germany and Spain.