River City Art Association features artwork by Sheila K. Ter Meer throughout August in the gallery space at the Vigo County Public Library in Terre Haute, Indiana.
The Clay County artist designs representational and abstract art to pique interest and curiosity and challenge the imagination. She has been honored for nature photography in Nature Conservancy competitions for exhibits at Indianapolis International Airport, but finds appreciation for photography-based abstract designs most rewarding.
One of her designs intrigued the juror of the 2022 Abstract April show at Covered Bridge Art Gallery just enough to garner a First Place as well as her second Best of Show at the Rockville, Ind. gallery. Her photography-based abstract “Vegas Elvis 1977” was juried into Swope Art Museum’s 75th Annual Wabash Valley Exhibition in Terre Haute. Other unique designs have been selected for shows in Arts Illiana Gallery in Terre Haute and the Indiana University-East Whitewater Valley Art Competition in Richmond, Ind. She also has a photograph in the Permanent Art Collection at Indiana State University and an abstract in the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology collection.
Artist’s Statement
To satisfy my enthusiasm for fantasy/whimsies – anything playful or fanciful, as an artistic creation – I take creative license with my photographic images to design one-of-a-kind abstractions. I combine digital processes with traditional photography techniques to intensify colors and contort form. Brilliant designs in black negative space liken some of my artistic expressions to black light and scratch board art. Like the Rorschach test, the subjectivity of my “inkblots” is open to interpretation.
I challenge viewers to study my designs and assign their own meaning before I reveal the photographic image used to create each abstraction. I like to keep them guessing and experience their reactions to the transformation.
To make many of my reimagined art pieces command even more attention, I “think outside the frame.” Stripping away conventional parameters and exposing the image on canvas, leather, hardboard, wood, acrylic or metal, creates a unique presentation and dramatic viewing experience.
River City Art Association 
Very nice.