Teresa Petersen

Teresa Petersen
Detroit, Michigan, USA

STATEMENT

I am an artist living and working in the city of Detroit. My main media are collage and assemblage, with themes focusing on nature, society, consumption, and re-use.

I am concerned with overconsumption and how it affects Mother Nature. Due to our society’s throw-away mindset, the world is awash with trash, and overflowing with used items. Buying more new things contributes to landfills and global warming, so I create only with castoff materials. I search thrift stores and bulk trash day cast-offs to find materials to use in my artworks.

My work makes fun of popular culture as it pertains to stereotypes about women and women’s work. I also explore ideas of what is “natural” and how we live within nature.

My works are humorous, but they can have a sharp and subtle edge as I explore culture and stereotypes. I transform cheesy landscapes into narratives using cutouts from old encyclopedias, National Geographic, ladies’ magazines, and catalogs.

BIO

Teresa Petersen is an artist living and working in the city of Detroit. She received a Bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University in 1990, and a Master of Fine Arts from Wayne State University in 1998. She worked for 10 years as a scientific illustrator for both Michigan State University and the University of Michigan, drawing fossils, insects, fish, and lizards.

She now works full-time as an artist at her studio in the Pioneer Building, a small, repurposed factory building in an old manufacturing section of Detroit shared with more than 30 other artists.

Besides extensively showing locally in the Detroit area, she has also been selling art at Midwestern art festivals.

ARTIST CONTACT

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