Professor Terry Morrow Begins His 41st Year
by Debby Gibson
Terry Morrow with alumna, Cakky Brawley, during 40th Anniversary Studio Alumni Invitational Exhibition
Professor Terry Morrow begins his 41st year this semester as art professor at Texas Tech. It is a momentous time and an accomplishment that current students, faculty, and alumni applaud. He spent eight of those years additionally as Assistant Art Department Chairman, Art Department Chairman or Director when the school was called the Art Department, and two-times as Interim Director at the SoA. Morrow has always been ready to come forward as needed, which showcases his outstanding service and regard for students and the faculty. He is a perennial favorite professor with students and sought after as a colleague. He began our interview by telling me:
I guess I will continue to teach as long as I have health, still enjoy it, and feel like I have something left to contribute to the students. I used to get sons and daughters of former students when I did SMAP (Saturday Morning Art Program for high school students who are serious about art) but it’s grandchildren of graduates, now. I still enjoy it and as teachers, we owe it to be mentors – always.
In a recent interview with Scott Dadich, BFA Communications Design, 1999, the Creative Director of Wired magazine, he agreed that Morrow was a mentor. He said, “Terry Morrow was a great mentor and I started out in his SMAP program and was there every Saturday all through high school to learn. Later, when I went to Tech, Professor Morrow would look in on me to check how my classes were going. In his classes, I learned so much about drawing.”
Many students agree with Dadich and really treasure the times they spent in your classes. What made you decide to go into your field?
As a child growing up in Austin, I liked drawing and got to experience a program like our SMAP. It made the difference. Yes, it did inspire me to start SMAP here over 30 years ago.
In what ways has your art influenced you?
Art has been a part of me that always grows. It nurtures me. Being able to observe one’s world, aesthetic things— shapes, form, light— it’s a way of getting at who I am. I chose Printmaking because of its relationship to drawing-latitude of the processes -painting and design together.
What changes have you noticed in teaching?
When I began here in 1968, I would say that only half the faculty was engaged in teaching. Now we have a good and caring faculty – no more unconscious state of routine “zombified” teaching.
How has your teaching changed?
Standards called for in NASAD (National Association of Schools of Art and Design) helped me set a standard—not to go to automatic pilot. I combine some philosophy when I teach figure drawing, because in the beginning some students have a fear of drawing the human figure. In this class, we watch old movies and observe great body movements. I know that it is connecting when in class, a student, Paloma Lidzy, sophomore, said, ‘ Professor Morrow, look at what you have done. I walk around campus, studying people now all the time and think, my – her calves are very pronounced!’
His next class that night was studying photography and the body, he explained to me. The class was going to study Paul Simon’s song “Kodachrome.” I’m humming it to myself “Momma, don’t take our kodachrome— or Terry Morrow— away.”
My experience as an entering graduate student who needed to take some undergraduate work in printmaking before getting into actual graduate level studies was that Terry Morrow was an invaluable source of nurture for me as an artist. His innate sensitivity as a teacher helped keep me focused for the six years it took for me to earn my MFA in printmaking. I started as a part time graduate student as a mother with one toddler and continued on through the birth of my second child and beyond to complete my degree (life events which made taking a limited number of hours each semester necessary). His recognition of my humanity, instead of just another number on the student roster, certainly validated by continued efforts as an artist. He was also a perceptive mentor for me when I taught drawing as a graduate teaching assistant. I offer my commendation to him in his continued dedication as an exceptional educator for developing artists!