Michael Terra

public art, sculpture, ceramics

Paducah, Kentucky

About the Artist

So… I’ve been a working artist since about 1975 and, over the centuries, I have done a few different media. Currently, and for the last 25 years, I have worked primarily in Sculpture and Language and have miraculously supported my family doing it. I work from our home and studio in Lower Town where we do almost all of the creation and fabrication. Virtually everything I do is made in very ‘old school’ ways- by hand- and very often I am developing the process to accomplish the task. For the commission work, I have worked in a huge variety of media- cement, steel, clay, graphics, painting, and poetry- and I really love to collaborate.

About the Work

I love language & I love people’s stories and their histories. This leads me to do a whole lot of listening and paying attention to what is happening to other people. This is the foundation of where all of my writing begins. For my sculptures, I almost always want to layer the work with content that becomes ‘visible’ as you use different senses- not just sight. A bunch of my larger sculptures require the active participation of the viewer (to touch them and turn them, etc.) and depart from the ‘gallery standard’ of standing back from the art. I am a ‘hands-on’ kind of guy and often, even when I have a detailed plan, the work leads me as I go.