art | terriloui

August 21, 2025

new art. in Scottsville. [visual artist with writer’s block]

I’m not a writer. I do write, but no one else has to read my sporadic journal entries. I’ve created new art that needed titles. And this post needs verbiage and a succinct title, preferably referencing my visual art below. But I got nothing.

I’ve had difficulty naming the new art, had internal resistance to doing promotion, as I’ve felt tongue-tied and a-stammering.

Yet I persist. I like my art. I do actually want to get images out there, giving details on my current gallery show, and beckoning people to come to the gallery. Thus, here are place-holder words and titles, until my writing mojo returns.

“Everyone is clever nowadays.” And everyone can get tongue-tied. So be it.

This solo gallery show in the Town of Scottsville came together in a couple of very short weeks. And with several works nearly completed, I chose to concentrate on finishing and framing over promotion.

The fine folks at SCAN and Gallery on Valley hosted an opening reception. It went really well. I made my way through the artist talk, took some goofy pix with friends and PHEW, that initial thrust was over.

This show continues ’til Sept. 7th, stop by some time, please and thank you!
I will be gallery sitting on Sat Aug. 23rd from 10am – 4pm and on Sun. Sept. 7th from 12 – 4pm.

Gallery At Valley SCAN / Scottsville Center for Arts and Nature
460 Valley Street, Scottsville, VA 24590
Gallery Hours: Thursday, Friday and Sunday 12 – 4pm and Saturday 10am – 4pm
And by Appointment: getcurious@svilleartsandnature.org

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February 3, 2024

Flora Fauna Furniture – my foraging art of salvage

Stepping outside, in tall boots or sandals, with a curious mind, wearing gloves and sunscreen, I begin.

In the fields near our home, I came across an office chair. It was visible in the tree line off a field, apparently a dump site. Plenty of glass, cans, general household trash. I’ve been trekking there through all seasons, fascinated by the moss and seedlings determined to inhabit, reclaim, transform the chair.

Looking for ways to work, create within the natural world, I’m inspired by decades of work by Andy Goldsworthy, Patrick Dougherty’s Stickworks, Maya Lin’s installations and monuments, Christo’s wrappings, and the Spiral Jetty guy (must look up his name again. did that, Robert Smithson)

We stay at a lodge on a remote island on the Chesapeake Bay in November, first time in Nov 2017. I’ve been fascinated by the littoral beach, shifts and erosion of the coast line and the trash and tangled lines that wash in with the tide. Choosing to replicate, interpret what I encounter, I create installations, embracing the temporary, photographing the work, then allowing nature to reclaim it. Earth Art. Mother nature, she rocks.

Sometimes when the poison ivy, greenbriar and bugs aren’t fierce, I tinker with rusted metal, salvage some choice iron, for scrap or future use. I do love discovery aspect and try not to descriminate with found objects.

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January 17, 2024

Coming in clear, good reception

January weather conceded a little for our 5 to 7pm Opening Reception for Cut Up and Put Together, Jan 12th at Staunton Augusta Art Center.

No snow or ice, temps well above freezing, but plenty of rain. And the Staunton & Valley folks were not deterred. They showed up strong, engaged, smiling and ready to see new art. Speaking for myself, but perhaps the 4 other artists too, I’m beholden to all for the community support. Gush. It was really great. Really.

After the reception, the umbrellas were back out, we enjoyed a great dinner with Charlottesville friends and DC family. Barry and I came back to gallery on Saturday to catch some images in the natural light.

Images of my collage, assemblage, sculptural works at SAAC gallery can be viewed here, Cut Up and Put Together.

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January 10, 2024

And then there were Circles

As 2019 was ending, I worked at a hydroponic greenhouse. I noticed several boxes of these cardboard discs, that arrived in some shipment as packing filler. I diverted some discs from recycling and hefted them to our empty, new old home.

Use what you got, right?! When materials were scarce during the quiet, at-home times of 2020, I realized that what I had in abundance, were circles. Little brown cardboard discs, in a huge plastic bag, in a closet, awaiting a purpose.

By now, I had acquired replacement scissors and piles of colorful printed catalogs arriving by snail mail.

And so I started again, playing, making art, playing mostly. I traced the cardboard discs, cutting up everything of interest I could find. I positioned myself in a comfy chair by the window, sorted the stacks on my new lap desk. I traced and cut, traced and cut with an antique metal Holly Hobby trashcan filling at my feet.

In 2022, I counted over 6100 circles that I had traced and cut, now sorted into old blueberry, pumpkin seed or microgreens style plastic containers. By 2023, I had probably cut about 3500 more.

In 2022 and 2023, a few circles made it onto collages shown and sold at the vast and varied Teeny Tiny Trifecta group shows at Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville.

In early January 2024, 3 days ago, I delivered plenty of multi-circle collages, rustic assemblages and sculptures for the just-about-to-open show at Staunton Augusta Art Center. Come see Cut Up and Put Together, January 12 – February 17, 2024.

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February 25, 2018

The Order of Things

Patterns in nature fascinate me. Fallen leaves, a bamboo grove, waves at high tide. The eye zooms in on the shape of each part and then back out on the fuller pattern.

We order things in the home, matched socks aligned in the dresser drawer. Cutlery in the kitchen. Jigsaw puzzle pieces.

We reorder things outside, too. Like a magpie or squirrel, we collect. We take from there and put it over here. We make piles. We move rocks and make stone walls. The National Park Service says “Take only photos, leave only footprints” but sometimes, we’re rule breakers.

One Fall day, I reordered the pine cones. Then, I collected the beached detritus and settled on a ship shape path.

I’ve started to work on a fantasy garden out in the woods behind our house. I’ve been cleaning up the forest floor and started a random, drunken path out of soapstone, granite and quartz cut-outs. But nature will reorder again and again, hiding the path in the fall leaves.

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May 21, 2017

Collecting and cleaning on the shore, Andy Goldsworthy style

I tend to pause when I see trash and discarded objects out of place, especially when they interfere with a natural setting. And so it was that I spent a May morning rearranging 50 feet of shoreline on the Potomac River to get it just so.

My husband, Barry the boatbuilder was sailing at Leesylvania State Park and invited me to tag along. As he crewed in a Lightning regatta, I stayed ashore, rode my bike, cruised the fishing pier, and landed at the shore. I picked up the most of the true trash — shredded pieces of styrofoam, plastic water bottles, liquor bottles, bait buckets, tennis balls and plastic cigarette tips — and assembled them on a sun-bleached tree trunk moored in the sand. Then I set to work, with Andy Goldsworthy like attention, to make a little art with the abundant natural materials at hand.

With much to see on the littoral beach, I settled mostly on the black walnuts, with their beautiful, warm brown and tan coloring, worn ridges and varying sizes. I stooped, gathered acorns and snails shells, too, and arranged a satisfying wabi sabi assembly, orderly yet disorderly.

Before leaving, I stood in the shade of the tree line to watch and see if anyone else would notice the ephemeral collection. I took my leave and imagined how the incoming tide would soon be reordering it all, cleaning up after me.

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June 28, 2016

Stu-stu-studio, Extended Play

Necklace-5689
How do you condense three rooms worth of art supplies and ephemera into one room?

Slowly. With gentle, brutal focus, a huge trashcan, an 80s Pandora playlist. Shuffle, repeat. Breathe, switch to Tom Waits, repeat. Haul and purge, repeat.

JewelyContainers

OldStuio01

Decades worth of amassing creative tools & bits & bobs. I am now methodically sorting, purging, discerning the quick and the dead, the loved and abhorred in a blackstrap molasses move up (and down) two flights of stairs. Exhilarating and liberating when a trash bag gets tied up and permanently moved out — mentally exhausting when I hold a valued thing and replace it on another undecided pile.

Yes, Marie Kondo it gave me joy, still does, now Hell’s bells, where does it go?

I am not thinking of arson. But I ponder a summer bonfire and the phrase “a move is as good as a fire.” I’ve been in this house nearly 18 years. I move physically at the gym, not so much at home.

GreenRoom

MooRoom

StudioDoorway

I hit the pause button, switch gears and attempt to inaugurate my newly painted, purty, as yet uncluttered space. Create in the midst of the chaos? No good, had to pack a ditty bag, head to a friend’s home to exhale, play, drink cider and create.

Successful playdate, I made a lanyard necklace. Encouraging feedback and I’m ready to hone technique, play, repeat.

Necklace-5687

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November 8, 2015

Baines Books & Coffee

My little town of Scottsville has a great coffeeshop called Baines. I’ll be showing some art on the walls throughout November.

Come for the friendly vibe, have a muffin or grilled cheese, listen to the LPs on the phonograph, meet yer friends. Oh and drink coffee, buy new and used books!

I’ll be at Baines for the reception on Saturday 11/14/15 from 3-7pm-ish.

485 Valley St., Scottsville, Virginia (434) 286-3577
Hours? Hmmm, I think… Sat-Sun 9-4, Mon-Fri 7:30-4. Good to call.

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November 3, 2015

Lost and Found – Reception

Such a fine September night for Terri and Rose to meet and greet. Great evening to peruse the show, nibble on shrimp, visit with friends, family and make new art connections. Our joint show at PVCC is coming to an end, pulling down art from the walls on Wed. 11/4/15.

Thanks to Beryl Solla, gallery director who penned this introduction:

“I had the intuition that Deborah Rose Guterbock and Terri Long might be a match made in heaven. Both artists have a unique style that blends powerful imagery and a profound sensitivity to material and process. In this particular instance, both bodies of work look to nature as a rich source of imagery. I feel like I have struck visual gold.

Deborah Rose Guterbock is a versatile artist who is full of energy and vitality. Her work has significant range but is consistent in its reference to the “other”. There is a lot going on in each of her pieces. We see a kind of alchemic blend of materials, imagery and intention. This interesting mix suggests other worlds, other places and other times.

Terri Long continues to explore books as an essential component of her artwork. Her trajectory over the past decade has ranged from sculpture to collage all completed with a commitment to craft and composition. Her work shows a deft hand at combining interesting imagery with clever visual puns and a playful world view.”

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September 15, 2015

Lost and Found opens Friday 9/18/15

Nothing like the last minute, eh? Finally ready to show a sampling of cropped preview images of recent work. The show is hung and opens this Friday, got my dress picked out and I’m psyched for this happening!

From our Facebook announcement:

Please join us as we celebrate the opening of our two woman exhibit in the V. Earl Dickinson Building, PVCC, Charlottesville, VA on Friday 9/18/15 from 5-7pm.

The show will feature the artwork and various conceptual takes on the idea of “Lost and Found” as explored by Terri Long and Deborah Rose Guterbock. Up-cycling, appropriation, soul searching and geographic adventuring are all relevant themes in these two bodies of work.

Come support us, help yourself to yummy refreshments and take part in the merriment! Show runs September 18th – November 4th, come on by!

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