All you need is love: Artist hopes to ignite the fire
by Karen Schafer
Aug. 20, 2003
 
J. Adam Fenster/The Gazette
Germantown artist Terisse Perez says she creates art containing information from the "Universal Light Life Force."
Fasten
your seat belts. Terisse Perez is about to take us on a metaphysical
ride. The artist has harnessed energy from deep in her soul and
channeled it outward for all of Montgomery County to see.
And
while she may still have to wait tables, Perez believes her "art for
the masses" -- as she likes to call her drawings -- "will release a
certain chemical property" allowing the viewer to "stand up tall ...
"and share this love with others and the world at large."
Eleven of her drawings are on view at her place of employment --
Tropics Restaurant in Germantown -- through Saturday, Aug. 30.
This
need to draw started back in 1995 in her native New York City when
working as a makeup artist -- for the likes of Salt-N-Pepper -- started
drying up.
"I
didn't know what was happening," she recalls, but then things became a
little strange. While watching TV or lying in bed, Perez started hearing
an angel or spiritual guide telling her to create 40 art works. She was
to create drawings containing information from what Perez calls the
"Universal Light Life Force." The images would "strike a chord and
ignite the codes within every individual that comes in contact with the
creative healing art works," she recalls thinking.
Although
these messages were coming from Perez's own brain, she wasn't exactly
pleased with the mandate. She wondered what 40 subjects she would draw;
over time, the images came to her. The cat's eyes in her drawings, "The
Watcher," were inspired while she was reading the book, "The Peaceful
Warrior." Crying over the death of a character, she heard a voice say,
"You know no one ever dies. Snap out of it," she recalls. "All of a
sudden, I saw these eyes. What I created doesn't come close to what I
saw."
For
some people this may sound inspirational, while for others, it is hocus
pocus hogwash. But in terms of fine art, the idea of creating artwork
that will take the viewer beyond his or her small insular world is a
serious goal. Perez is probably one of the few artists willing to admit
she hopes her artwork will cause viewers "joyful tears" and bring them
to "their knees." It probably shouldn't matter that some of Perez's
primitively rendered drawings look like posters you might see in a 1960s
head shop. Perhaps they can be classified as primitive or naive art.
For
now, Perez has attained neither fame nor fortune from her artwork. In
fact, since moving to the area six years ago, she has contended with
people saying the drawings are "of the devil," she concedes. Still
others tell her, "You have this gift," she says, "They look at me with
reverence."
Like
most artists, Perez's biggest complaint is that people enjoy her work
for sale from $300 to $900 -- but "don't want to pay money for it." That is why she has created a side business, selling postcards, T-shirts and personal soul mandalas.
While
the cards and clothes are easy to understand, for the initiated,
personal soul mandalas are drawings Perez creates using information held
in the buyer's "cellular level." The end result is a drawing that will
cause "the individual to open up and move forward in new ways," Perez
explains.
Perez
sent a personal soul mandala to inspirational author and lecturer Dan
Millman, and in turn, received an e-mail from him wishing her "fair
winds and good fortune."
Not a bad idea, especially for someone who claims to be clairvoyant.
"I don't know where that is going. I will just have to wait and see," she explains.
Meanwhile, Perez has pictures to draw and orders to fulfill.
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Drawings
from Terisse Perez's "New Life Forms" and "Antiquities" collections are
on view at Tropics Restaurant, 13016 Middlebrook Road, Germantown,
through Saturday, Aug. 30. Hours are Wednesday through Friday, noon to 3
p.m., and Monday and Saturday, 5 p.m. to closing. Call 301-972-9300.
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