Meet Terry Pedigo | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Terry Pedigo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Terry, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I truly believe we are all created to do something….we’re all hardwired to do something specific. And after trying some other careers in life and being miserable, I knew I had to do something in the creative/art world. As a kid I was never any good at sports and barely got by in my classes but I was always sketching, drawing, doodling and I knew that was truly what I was designed to do and did it well. It brought me joy and peace.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I got into soft pastels because I was impatient and kind of lazy. I didn’t want to wait for paint to dry. I could work as fast as I wanted. And where most artists have a niche, maybe it’s landscapes or people, I just take on whatever inspires me. Which means sometimes I fall flat on my face. I’ve put things out there that later I’m embarrassed about, but I learn from and it helps me to become a better artist.

When I first got started in art I really came in through the graphic end of it through advertising agencies where I could pay the bills and support my family. I would do fine art on the side when I had time. Then when my kids grew up and moved out, it allowed me to start pursuing the fine art more and more. The thing I’ve learned as an artist is most of us are very spontaneous, live in the moment and so when the money is good we burn through it fast. Watching my friends around me getting a regular pay check, I didn’t have that. But I learned there were a lot of peaks and valleys financially, so it was important for me to slowdown and live modestly and put money aside. There were no guarantees next month. I didn’t want to be a starving artist. I’m proud that I got to pursue what I love.

I was born and raised in the Texas Panhandle, so the colors, the trees (or lack of), the wind, the extremes of the area were just part of my growing up. I spent summers as a teen working for my dad. He was a crop duster. I would spend hours standing around on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, doing nothing but waiting, waiting and looking, looking at fields, cattle, clouds, trucks, old buildings and plants. Studying, killing time, and listening for the sound of a spray plane heading back.

Maybe it was those years of killing time that helped me focus.

Give me a stick of beautiful pigment and a sandy piece of paper and get out of the way! Maybe I’ll do a picture of a rusty truck in the middle of nowhere, a door falling off its hinges on an empty farm house, a west Texas sunrise, or some weathered piece of equipment left in a field. If it sells, it sells, but I’ll be killing time doing what I love.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Living in the Texas panhandle, one of the things people always love to go see is the Cadillac Ranch. After that I’d probably take them for a ride in my old 1953 Ford truck, down the old Route 66, to the Golden Light Cafe to get a greasy hamburger and fries. Or we’d visit the Big Texan Steak Ranch where you can get a free 72 oz. steak if you can eat it in an hour. And definitely would take them to the Palo Duro Canyon State Park, the 2nd largest canyon in the United States. People are always amazed when you’re driving along flat land and all of a sudden, out of nowhere there’s a beautiful canyon! As an artist there’s a lot of stuff to paint down there.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Maybe it’s in my genes, my mom inspired me to love art, she was an artist. My real motivation was in high school. I was extremely lazy in school and never wanted to do homework….and one class I could always ace was art, until I got to high school. In about halfway into my junior year, my teacher started giving me failing grades in art. And yet looking around at everyone’s art I knew mine was as good if not better than most in my class. I finally asked the teacher why he was failing me? He told me I had a lot of talent and wasn’t applying myself…..I was doing just enough. He was holding me to a different standard and forced me to really take my art seriously. His name was Paul Keithly. And to this day I know he was the one that really motivated me to start being serious about art…it was more than just doodling and sketching things real quick.

Website: TerryPedigo.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terry.pedigo.501/