“I love telling stories, whether visual or verbal,” is how new member Teresa Roberts Logan explains her approach to art. Actually, Teresa is not new to Touchstone—she is returning to the gallery long-distance from Pittsburgh after a hiatus of several years. And when she talks about her approach to art, it is not just the paintings and drawings she will exhibit with us, but also her work as a stand-up comic and a cartoonist.
Women—as spiritual creatures and as leaders—serve as the inspiration for much of Logan’s imagery. Born and growing up in Tennessee, she comes from a long line of strong Southern women, including both of her grandmothers. They were accomplished and prolific quilters. As a child she was surrounded by their work, and the lessons she absorbed from them have been an important influence on her own creative expression.
Much of her previous work depicted such figures as individuals. Now, however, she wants to evoke women together, in culture and “as witnesses.” With their monthly cycles and stages of childbearing and child-rearing, women experience many “seasons of life,” Logan says; they know how to “weather things,” and they are “the axes around which things turn.”
Goings-On, 9” x 12”, gouache and ink on paper
Logan points to African masks as another source of inspiration. She first saw an exhibit of these artifacts in college and was struck by how they transformed simplified and stylized facial features into expressive form. This imagery found its way into her own cartoons and paintings, along with striking rhythmic patterns, a residual of her earlier work in textile design. All of this builds on her initial training in graphic design, which she pursued at Memphis State.
Logan not only works in multiple visual genres but also uses many different media. She sketches most of her cartoons, both single-image and series, in pencil but sometimes draws them directly in ink. Many of her paintings begin as ink drawings, sometimes with color added. Initially painting in oils, she has recently moved to acrylic and acrylic gouache, whose density appeals to her. As for color, her palette ranges from black, gray and white, which allow her to produce highly nuanced drawings, many of them large ink works on paper, and paintings, to neon colors, which “vibrate” and enable her to create movement visually.
It Is Essential, 9.5” x 15”, gouache, ink, and collage on paper
An award-winning writer, Logan has performed comedy both in clubs and on television. One can recognize a certain feminist iconography, whether verbal or visual (and sometimes both) across the entire range of her work, which can be viewed more fully on her website, laughingredhead.com.
—Sonya Michel