Bodidharma, the bringer of Zen to China from India said,

"Using the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is liberation."

The roads I have traveled throughout my life have been filled, filled with both joy and disappointment, and yet, while on my journey theres has only been one crucial question.

Does this road have a heart?

If it does not, I abandon it.

It is not an easy thing to change direction. There is fear, regret and reluctance, but with the faith that there is an opportunity for discovery, I keep moving, wanting, needing, to walk the road with heart.

My paintings keep moving too.

I tend to work in a series, until the series let me know it is complete. Often, an element from one series will evolve into another series, or the next paintings will refer to a place or experience, and as the canvas and I collide, struggle, then agree, the landscapes of my inner journey reveal a greater reality.

1Frome artists statement at www.terrancecoffman.com

Terrence Coffman is an accomplished artist, author, musician/songwriter and an internationally recognized leader in art education. He studied at the Corcoran College of Art and Design and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Manhattan. Coffman worked at the Maryland College of Art and Design for more than twelve years and in 1983 became president of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, an institution he guided for the next 20 years.

In 1995 Coffman was awarded a fellowship at the Lacoste School of Art in France where he taught and conducted research for his novel on Vincent Van Gogh. His fictional work is entitled, A Walk through the Wheatfields, The Missing Journals of Vincent Van Gogh and is based on the life of the post-impressionist painter.

In his artist statement, Terrence Coffman says, “I seem to move through the world as if I am a character in a novel. Being an artist teaches one that there is always another canvas to paint.” “My paintings are often called abstractions, they are not. They are the non-objective landscape of my inner being, my attempt to move into a greater reality” … “The dancing movements of my brush and my spirit were critical to the success of my paintings.”1

In an earlier interview Coffman has also stated about his art: “We have a responsibility to the gift of creativity… Something is expected by the Universe in return. We are here for a higher purpose. So finding our own expression is a major part of an artist’s life. We cannot allow our selves to be defined by others’ expectations and approval, but must move beyond the heroes and the models. We have to become the vehicle for our talent to breathe its own life.”2

1Excerpts from artist statement and artist biography at www.terrencecoffman.com
2 “Terrence Coffman on the Art of Life,” Northshore Lifestyle, March 1995, Conley Publishing.

Wisconsin Visual Art Achievement Award, 2016
Wisconsin Artists Biennial Winner, 2014