REKNOWNED AVIAN PHOTOGRAPHER AND AUTHOR FEATURED IN WISCONSIN FRESH ART SPRING TOUR 2008—MAY 16–18

Photographer/Author Terry Turrentine to Introduce “Great Egret” Exhibit as BNOX Gold & Iron Demonstrating Artist

A widely-exhibited artist in the United States and Europe, Turrentine has been photographing egrets for the last 25 years, a journey begun by a chance encounter with an enormous white bird on a Marin County, California shoreline.

“Its purity and matchless grace called to me,” she says.

Beginning with film and printing the images as Calotypes (a 19th Century photographic process using silver iodide coated paper), she now works exclusively with digital technology. Her images, “Great Egrets,” photographed across California, Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Minnesota, will be the featured gallery show of BNOX Gold & Iron in Pepin, WI from May 3 through June 23. As part of the Wisconsin Fresh Art Spring Tour, the public will have opportunity to meet Turrentine and view photography demonstrations on May 16, 17 and 18 (10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day).

“My objective is to combine the tradition of wildlife photography with my love of fine art photography,” says Turrentine of the upcoming exhibit.

Some of the “Great Heron” images featured in the gallery can be also be found in Turrentine’s recently released volume of the same name. A limited-edition of only 30, the letterpress hand-sewn book contains an artist biography, detailing her journey from hunter to photographer, as well an essay on Great Egrets by San Francisco poet Richard Lang.

Rebecca Paquette Johnson, BNOX’s owner, is pleased to present Turrentine’s work and provide the public a rare opportunity to interact with the artist as part of the bi-annual Fresh Art Tour.

“We have featured Terry’s beautiful photography for years,” she says. “I’m excited for this opportunity to let others get a glimpse into her creative process and meet her in person.”

Terry Turrentine works from her garden studio in the Castro district of San Francisco. Recognized in Europe and the United States, her photography has been exhibited widely in art show and webzine venues. She believes photography should transcend elitism and the vagaries of passing trends:

"I want my art to reflect the deep spiritual foundations and geometry of the human experience. Artists must reject the egotistical and self-serving elitism of the current art market. The most important task of the artist during these uncertain times is to awaken and celebrate the existence of beauty in our world. Only then will we be able to seek a new direction for human life that leads to freedom and to the healing of wounds which are so pervasive in contemporary society."

A graduate of Elmira College and the San Francisco Art Institute, Ms. Turrentine also served as vice president and senior art director in the advertising agency Mintz, Hoke, and Goff with offices in Elmira, New York and Avon, Connecticut. While in the advertising business, she designed packaging materials for A&P Foods, art directed the introductory campaign for the first ATM machine in the US for Marine Midland Bank, and won the prestigious CA Annual Report Award for Citizens and Northern National Bank. In 1992, Ms. Turrentine launched 10 PERCENT, a breakthrough lesbian and gay general interest magazine which gained national circulation. It was lauded for its editorial content, award-winning design, and excellent interviews, including a rare portrait of Elton John.