An artist’s grief and understanding of the natural world intertwines with one another, symbolizing the repetitive and never-ending cycles they both bear throughout life.
As a senior BFA major in Visual Arts, Theresa Glazer has dappled in numerous art forms, but said she currently finds herself between print making, ceramics and metalworking.
No matter the art form, one theme remains consistent: Glazer’s work revolves around grief and how she has come to deal with it.
The first time Glazer was truly met with grief was when her father passed away when she was very young. Glazer said she didn’t know
him as well as she would’ve liked to, and that she doesn’t have any core memories with him.
More recently, Glazer’s grandfather passed away, who was another key figure in her life.
“When my father wasn’t there, he [Glazer’s grandfather] was there for me. So, it was almost comparative to losing my father all over again. So, that’s what I base a lot of my grief around,” Glazer said.
Glazer said that she also bases her grief around generational trauma.
“It’s interesting to see how it [generational trauma] gets passed down and how we almost adjust during the generations,” Glazer said. “Because I know that I didn’t want to be the same way as
somebody else or I wanted to be able to express my emotions without running in the opposite direction.”
Frida Kahlo is one of Glazer’s inspirations because of how Kahlo deals with grief, the natural world and expresses her emotions through artwork in ways Glazer appreciates. Glazer also said she takes inspiration from other CCU students,
especially the professors.
In addition to themes of grief and trauma, nature also plays a reoccurring role in Glazer’s work.
Although art has always been a part of Glazer’s life, when she
first came to Coastal Carolina University, she was a biology major. She eventually found her way back to art but said she still loves biology and features it in her artwork today with tree rings and other natural world aspects.
The theme of grief works its way into Glazer’s work by aspects of repetition in combination with nature.
Tree rings are just one example of this repetition, as well as Glazer’s current metal working project where she is creating a large number of copper leaves.
“The repetitive process of making the copper leaves has really showed me how calming it can be to do things over and over again while still being able to get different results,” Glazer said.
Glazer said that the metal working process begins with a flat sheet of metal which she then forms into a generic leaf shape. From there, she hits it a bunch of times, puts patterns into the leaf and folds it, resulting in an organic shape.
After graduation, Glazer said she hopes to take a break from education for a short time and focus on herself, but then eventually plans to get her master’s degree and teach art at the college level.
“I’ve loved art ever since I was younger, I mean, I’m covered in tattoos … I incorporate art into
everything I can do,” Glazer said
