Who is Therese Black?

I am an artist.

I am a story-teller.

Most people wonder where I get my artistic inspiration. How do I create the designs for my art? Where does it come from?

Let me tell you a story...

When I was in the fourth grade, the school library had a book drive. My best friend Andrea and I went around the neighborhood with a little red wagon collecting books. In the process we met Ray Carlson. Mr. Carlson was retired when we met him. Prior to that, he had been the editor of the Arizona Highways magazine. He took the magazine from a black and white road-work list to a nationally famous full-color magazine. Mr. Carlson met our parents and we were allowed to get off the school bus at his house. He fed us ice cream, showed us old Arizona Highways magazines, and showed us his parrots. Best of all, Ray let us play with the stuff in his house!

Ray Carlson lived in a multi-level, Chinese paper style house filled with gem encrusted treasure chests, Chinese art, and all sorts of stuff to enliven the imagination. We were allowed to play with jewel encrusted swords, and go all over the whole house. His house was the perfect place for two kids who fantasized about princesses and dragons. Outside the front door, there was also a very large stone Buddha with a jewel in its navel.

We went all over Ray’s house while playing. His house was a fantasy land. We also played cards with Mr. Carlson and looked at magazines. He told us stories about the desert flora and fauna while showing us pictures from the Arizona Highways magazines. This went on for a few years. One day, he said he was going to show us something we had never seen before!

What could that possible be? We had seen the entire house. We opened every chest. We looked in every nook and cranny. We looked at all the books and art and searched bookcases for hidden doorways. What else could there be?

Mr. Carlson raised the bird cages up out of the kitchen. Then, he removed the wall! There was a doorway to a hidden room. We went down a few steps to a large room we had never seen. There were rows of shelves and more shelves against the walls. All the shelves were filled with stuff. Mr. Carlson said we could both pick out one item from this room. There was one exception. He pointed at a wall and said we could not pick out anything from this wall. This wall contained valuable items.

Andrea and I looked at all the other shelves and both picked out the Paisley Cats. There were two cats and we both wanted them. Ray settled the issue by giving us both one cat and letting us both pick another item. “Pick one and do not pick the same one”. We looked again. Andrea picked out a vase. The vase had what looked like noodles on the outside! I wondered why she picked that. Mr. Carlson handed her the vase and told her that her choice said she has great depth of character and was capable of seeing beauty where others might not. He went on in this way for a few minutes. When he was finished, I was convinced that vase was the most precious item in the whole world.

I looked and looked for a long time before choosing some bright blue dishes. The color was fantastic. Ray told me that my choice showed that I had a very bright personality - just as bright as the colors on the dishes. He went on like that for a few minutes and finished by telling me to make sure I kept those dishes until I knew the real value of them. DO NOT sell them or give them away!

At least five years went by before I discovered they were original DeGrazias. Andrea’s vase was ancient Chinese. I am convinced the shelves we could not choose from had no value. I remember seeing pots and pans.

The bright colors, jeweled Buddha, and Mr. Carlson’s comments became part of my art. I read the Dalai Lama’s autobiography at about this same time period and decided the "middle way" made sense.

Do you want truly unique, original fine art? If yes, this is for you.

My art is as unique as the Faberge Egg. Other early inspirations include baroque and rococo art and architecture. The religious art of India also inspired a few pieces; although my art is not religious. A single piece of colored pencil art can take from two to seven months of full time work to create. Intricate drawings intertwine highly stylized art with more realistic imagery. The story and drawing can take as much as a month to design, draw, and ink. Then oil, colored pencil, or acrylic color is applied. A piece of art can be drawn and re-drawn as many as five times before completion. I do colored pencil like no one else. I also do the same style of art in oil or acrylic paints on wood and canvas.

Be sure to take a look at the decorative, fine art. Again, this is done like no other.

Unique, eclectic, collectible, and collected.