Tersh Ronalds

Artist, Caricaturist, Composer
Territory of the Haudenosaunee and Seneca (Farmington, NY, USA)

Piera's Dragon Planet, Digital Drawing, 6” x 4”, 2022
Celebration, Digital Drawing with 3 Caricatures, 9” x 12”, 2022

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Here is “Calling”, a song combining voices of three members of Open Studio, and a poem written by a fourth, composed in 2022:

ARTIST Statement:

Some things require long, careful planning. Other things are better done in a split second. I have discovered that it is often more fun for me to do things quickly … without much thought. To improvise. Though some things may take years to learn how to do in seconds … safely.

Bob Ross pretended on television to teach us how to have fun improvising oil paintings. Actually, he was copying carefully prepared canvases that were off camera. He left nothing to chance during his 1/2 hour shows. I guess that’s kind of a good metaphor for the combination of spontaneous fun and careful agony of preparation involved in being a creator.

I guess one of my muses is improvisation. Not knowing what I’m doing, and doing it anyway. Other Muses are people who are positive. Art and images can be used for any propaganda. I prefer to use it for uplifting propaganda when possible.

Music is a new field for me. I also like being able to make up stuff quickly in music… but sometimes editing afterwards can take 10 times (100?) as long as the initial improv. Getting together with other people on Zoom doing creative ( and other) things is very helpful! I like being alone and with people at the same time.

BIO:

Artist

Tersh Ronalds has been an Artist on and off for 65 years; born in Manhattan, but raised in Munich, Germany, and Paris, until the age of 16. He explored museums all over Europe. Back in the USA he began creating many kinds of art - hand forged ironwork, oil paintings, portraits, house portraits, abstracts, and murals. He made custom carpentry and art. He even made parts for a nuclear submarine.

In the year 2000, at age 50, he discovered “Dance Freedom” and the dance form “Contact Improvisation” in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There he began to realize how play, creativity and improvisation were importantly related. He also found joy. In the dance, he saw how people were able to invent moves in split seconds, doing things “faster than thought could conceive”, which led to “happy accidents”.

In 2018, Tersh learned to draw caricatures at an amusement park; another “quick creation” art form. Then in 2020, he learned to make digital art on the iPad with an app called Procreate (after struggling with photoshop for years). He sometimes combines his hand drawn art with digital art. One of the things he finds gratifying is turning people’s thoughts into inspirational visions for them. Tersh finds great fun in drawing caricatures at festivals (usually done in only 15 minutes), and receives great joy when people scream with delight or ask for hugs after seeing their finished drawing!

Composer

Tersh felt frustrated about his relationship to music for years because it seemed he couldn't learn to play a musical instrument. Then in 2020, he discovered he was carrying a musical instrument around all the time. But he thought it was a phone! After a few months of experimenting with that small iPhone touch screen, he got an iPad Pro 12.9”, because making music by touch in Garage Band can be so much fun! And the touch screen interface makes quick improvisation possible. Now he can play basically ALL instruments! He probably can’t be called a musician… but his brother said, “You’re a composer!” Currently he is also teaching himself Apple’s professional music software “Logic Pro X”.

Contact: tershronalds@gmail.com www.tershronalds.myportfolio.com
He can be supported on patreon here: www.patreon.com/tersh1_patreon