Essays
Angle of Repose is a suggestive phrase with many meanings. The dictionary says angle is a measure of the amount of turning necessary to bring one line or plane into coincidence with another, and the precise viewpoint from which something is observed. My paintings are places – looked at intensely and over time. Looking becomes a meditation – a way to absorb the uniqueness of a place and make it part of me. But angle includes the sense of bringing two things into alignment. When one looks hard enough, the world enters a certain alignment with the viewer and the viewer is transformed by what is seen. Something happens. The paintings are equal parts the specific place and its effect on me.
Repose – the other half of the phrase and my work. One meaning of repose is deposit. Another is to place confidence in, to trust, and also to reach a state of harmony in the arrangement of parts and colors. To paint a sense of harmony, one tries to find the harmony within oneself, and trust that whatever one sees will be influenced by that quality at the quiet center.
Angle of repose – the place at which action stops, stones settle, sand rests, water quietly disperses. By studying repose, one can intuit the action. The two are inseparable.
Notes
My paintings focus on the sense of place, currently New England’s landscape, seascape, and the heavens above. I have also documented the Blackstone Valley National Heritage Corridor with paintings of the Blackstone River and Canal and the old textile mills along its banks.
My work is in a number of collections, including the DeCordova Museum, the Blackstone Group, Ritz Carlton Hotels, Marriott Hotels, and Baystate Medical Center. An exhibit titled Beyond a View: The Landscape Drawings and Poetry of Teri Malo was on view at the Danforth Museum in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1998. Another solo show featured oil paintings and poems about the Blackstone Valley and was hosted by The Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket, Rhode Island in 2001.
100 Artists of New England, new from Schiffer Press
100 Artists of New England
100 Artists of New England, a new publication from Schiffer Press, is an eclectic survey of 100 artists working in New England today, including two pages devoted to my paintings. Available through bookstores and Amazon, the book is a fun tool for collectors and artists.
