Art & Life with Teresa Baksa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Teresa Baksa.

Teresa, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I have always loved art, and especially drawing and painting. I took painting lessons when I was a child, and after high school, I continued on to art school at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly MA, where I spent four years doing nothing but studio art and loving every minute of it. I used to dread the weekends because I just wanted to be in the studios at Montserrat. You could say I had the makings of a complete art nerd. After Montserrat I completed a bachelor’s degree in art history and the humanities at Harvard University. I put myself through school and supported myself as a painter, by learning the skill of printed circuit board design, and I worked at Teradyne, Inc. in Boston. After working in the field of electronics for ten years, I quit my job, gathered up my savings, and moved to Cape Cod, MA., to open up a small studio and gallery on historic Route 6A in Yarmouth Port. For four years I painted, did commissioned portraits, sold paintings and sketches, and taught art in my studio. One day while on my morning run before work, I met Michael Baksa, a goldsmith, (and runner), who had a studio and jewelry shop on Route 6A, in the neighboring town of Dennis. A couple of years later we were married, and we combined our studios to form Baksa Studio on Route 6A in Dennis Village. For the next 20 years we created our work at Baksa Studio, in adjoining studios, while sharing the gallery space out front for our painting and jewelry display. We both learned the business side of art by having to sell our own work, accept commissioned projects, and promote our work. In 2013, Michael began consigning some of his work to other stores and galleries, and it began to take off. We decided that it was a good time to make a change. Both of us wanted to be able to create without the time constraints and responsibility of owning a retail business. We also realized we needed to have more freedom to be able to enjoy the beautiful environment of Cape Cod which inspires our art. So we closed Baksa Studio, moved into our home studios, and we found galleries and stores to represent us. Both of us are just at the beginning of our 6th decade, and we are finally working exclusively on our art. Now I can say I truly am a full -fledged art nerd. And loving every minute of it.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I create paintings, drawings, and occasionally, monotype prints. I love the traditional mediums of oil paint, watercolor, pastel, charcoal, and ink, on traditional supports of stretched linen canvas and acid-free, rag paper. I like to experiment with the mediums and combine two or more in my work, but the mediums themselves are never the subject of my work. The mediums are a means to express ideas and/or feelings that come from within me, formed by what I see and experience in the world.

Sometimes I work directly from models or nature, and other times I create drawings or watercolor studies to work out ideas and compositions for larger and more involved oil paintings. I enjoy the ease of working out ideas with drawing materials first before committing the composition to paint. While there are always changes to paintings in progress, I like to have the fundamentals of a composition somewhat figured out. This helps me to keep a painting fresh.

As I get older, I have become more focused in my work and there is a certain intensity of expression that I strive for. I find that I surrender to my subject, whether it is figurative, imaginative, or a landscape. By this, I mean to say that after I am initially inspired by a subject, I then let it guide the progress of my idea. I listen to what the subject is telling me. If I am creating a portrait, I like to understand meaningful aspects of my subject’s life, so that I can include symbolic imagery to give more depth to the painting and say more about the person. Sometimes I represent a person in multiple dimensions because we as humans are not still, but creatures of constant movement, in a world of constant movement. This is inspiration and it stirs the feelings, that then drives the artist, to create.

When an artist has been creating for many years they have a wellspring of ideas and material to borrow from and reconfigure into their own artistic language. It is an inner language of color, form, ideas, and feelings. My hope for my art is that my inner language will ripple into a much larger, living existence when it is experienced by others. For me, that is the artist’s elusive reward.

What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
I think that the role of the artist is more important than ever in the frenetic pace of our world. With the barrage of instant daily news of political crisis and violence, and the robbing of our concentration from too much social media, there is a breakdown of our humanity happening. Art is necessary to keep the balance, to engage humans with a language that has no borders, to force people to stop, look, and listen, and to nurture the soul. My art could fall into the last category.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I am represented by Miller White Fine Arts in South Dennis, MA. millerwhitefinearts.com
and also at The Spectrum of American Artists Gallery in Brewster, MA spectrumamerica.com

There is a portfolio of my work on my website, along with biographical information, and resume. I can also be contacted directly through my website. teresabaksa.com

Contact Info:

• Website: teresabaksa.com
• Email: teresa@baksa.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/teresabaksa_art
• Facebook: facebook.com/teresabaksaart
• Other: pinterest.com/teresabaksaart

Image Credit:
All images by Teresa Baksa

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