Artists walk among us and you may not even know it. It may come across as a sci-fi alien alert, however if it wasn’t for the artist and the work they create, our lives would be in fact, dull. The beauty of what they create is certainly noticed and appreciated.

"Sexpot GMO in Progress" at exhibition McGowan Fine Art, Concord, NH
Sex Pot XII: Gravida (GMO) at exhibition McGowan Fine Art, Concord, NH

Derrick Te Paske is a professor of media studies at Framingham State University, where his department’s focus is “primarily concerned with theoretical principles and digital production/reproduction methods.” As he explains, “In purposeful contrast my art involves wood and other common tangible materials, employs tools and processes which are decidedly low tech, and results in unique and very physical objects. I have always been interested in classical forms, the ancient, the primitive, and the strange.”

"Deep Blue" - Derrick Te Paske, McGowan Fine Art, Concord, NH
“Deep Blue: Star Field” – Derrick Te Paske, McGowan Fine Art, Concord, NH

Te Paske moved from Iowa to New England in the late 1960’s. “I have worked as a carpenter, an English teacher, a photographer, a documentary filmmaker and an art dealer. I am now a Professor and the Chair of the Communication Arts Department of Framingham State University, where I have taught since 1988,” Te Paske continues “My documentary productions were screened in venues including the New England Film and Video Festival, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, and PBS; photographs were exhibited at the Boston Center for the Arts, and the Institute of Contemporary Art. I am a past member of the English Institute, the Photographic Resource Center, and the Boston Film/Video Foundation.”

The list of Te Paske’s involvement in the artistic communities around him are as follows: Artist Member of the Medici Society (School of the MFA, Boston), the American Association of Woodturners, and the New England Sculptors Association (NESA). My work has been represented at various New England galleries, including the Signature Gallery (Westport, CT), Lacoste Gallery (Concord, MA), and the Fiber Arts Center (Amherst, MA). He is also represented in the international selection 500 Wood Bowls (Lark Press), the art collection of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston), and the permanent collection of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (with attendant 2015 publication in Audacious, the Fine Art of Wood from the Montalto Bohlen Collection). My work has also appeared in American Woodturner (August, 2015 and February, 2016)

Te Paske’s work is meticulously thought out. With not a pin out of place, as seen in his “Deep Blue: Star Field” vase, his determination to create a work of art that has depth along with beauty can be seen and felt. “Several years ago, I had worked with various sorts of surface treatments, including screws, nails and copper tacks before settling on the brass “escutcheon” pins which have become a current feature (Deep Blue: Star Field has 2544 of them). The simple patterns now remind me that I have loved grids since I was a kid, whether it was eating waffles or using graph paper, and it interests (and has surprised) me to find what happens to straight lines on curved surfaces.”

The current exhibition TERRA INCOGNITA, runs September 5 to October 27, 2017 at McGowan Fine Art, 10 Hills Avenue, Concord, New Hampshire.

Terra Incognita exhibition at McGowan Fine Art, Concord, NH
Terra Incognita exhibition at McGowan Fine Art, Concord, NH

The exhibition combines the woodwork of Derrick Te Paske with the landscape watercolor work of Becky Darling and the oil on canvas work of Molly Wensberg. The combination of each artists work with the other complements the simplicity and complexity of the artistic world around us. Please click on each of the artists names to view each artists work at McGowan Fine Art.

You can also learn more about Derrick Te Paske in the hardcopy of ArtBeat Magazine Volume 2 on newsstands now or by purchasing online HERE.

ArtBeat Magazine thanks the artists that walk among us for we would have nothing to write about if they were not here. Enjoy.