100 Colorado Creatives 3.0: Teresa Booth Brown

#8: Teresa Booth Brown

Artist Teresa Booth Brown doesn’t only make art, though she does that very well, arranging shapes and textures on wood panels in collage and oils, creating brilliant negative-space studies in graphite on found book pages (with help from an eraser) and reinterpreting her familiar geometrics in printmaking media. She also lives and spreads art. She is a frequent arts-program resident and an art teacher, lecturer and advocate. Brown shares a slice of her life as an artist via the 100CC questionnaire.

Who in the world is interesting to you right now, and why?

I love my students. That people take time out of their busy lives to make or even study art is super-exciting to me.

What's one art trend you want to see die this year?

Over-use of the didactic explanation. I don’t mind a bit of illuminating text, but when there is a whole wall of words along with the art, I think that the art itself should have something to say by itself.

What's your day job?

I am currently the interim director of painting, drawing and printmaking at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village.

A mystery patron offers you unlimited funds for life. What will you do with it?

I would use it to help other artists. I am able to be the artist that I am because I was helped with a scholarship for college. Over the years, I have received many opportunities which only existed because of the generosity of arts organizations and individual donors. I would like to do the same for others.

Denver, love it or leave it? What keeps you here — or makes you want to leave?

Denver is surprisingly supportive of the arts.

What's the one thing Denver (or Colorado) could do to help the arts?

Lifelong love and understanding of the arts begins with art education. Educating children about the nature of creativity, as well as the making and appreciation of art itself, is crucial. Art is an important tool for teaching other disciplines, from math and science to history and literature and everything.

Who is your favorite Colorado Creative?

I have two favorites right now: Kim Manajek, curator at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and Becky Hart, Modern and Contemporary Art curator at the Denver Art Museum.

What's on your agenda in the coming year?

While temporarily living at Anderson Ranch Arts Center and working as the painting director, I have a few shows going on. I have a show at the Denver Botanic Gardens through August 6, which has a catalogue created in conjunction with my gallery, Michael Warren Contemporary. Shark’s Ink will be publishing a new print edition I made with them this spring called “Ultimate Metallic Suit.” I am also in a group show in New York, at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

Who do you think will get noticed in the local arts community in the coming year?

I hope that people who are interested in the arts and in artists will start doing the noticing themselves. There are wonderful artists all around us.

See Color: Works by Teresa Booth Brown in the Gates Garden Court Gallery at the Denver Botanic Gardens through August 6. Teresa Booth Brown is represented in Denver by Michael Warren Contemporary. Learn more about the artist and her work online.