Written by Terry Svat

In 2008, Terry was an instructor at George Washington University in the Art Therapy department. The department moved from the main campus to a new area in Old Town Alexandria and asked its faculty and students to take an 8×8 canvas and create a piece to be hung on the halls of the new space.

At the time, Terry couldn’t see how printmaking and canvas worked together until a small fragment of one of her prints fell on the canvas. She began adding more fragments of old prints to the canvas, thereby completing the piece. As she worked on this project, she became fascinated with the idea of working on canvas and creating these canvas print collages.

After she finished the one for GWU, she was hooked on creating more. Terry bought a few more canvases, then ordered a few more, and then changed sizes and kept going. That was the beginning of the Generations series. In this series, Terry focuses on the passing of time through generational issues. Using small canvases and fragments of prints from past series, she continues the conversations on canvas.

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About the Artist

Terry Svat

D.C. area artist Terry Svat is a successful printmaker who enjoys capturing the elements in life with innovative printmaking. Her work is introspective, her style is contemporary, and her method is hand-pulled prints. Throughout life, art continues to be her vocation and avocation. After graduating with a BFA from Kent State University, she worked in commercial art in Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. When her family began living and working abroad, she studied, taught, and worked in many art related fields in the former Soviet Union, Chile, Argentina, Panama and Germany. In the mid-90’s she received her MA in Art Therapy from George Washington University.

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