Exhibition Reception: Think Something Revolutionary, Think Change: Work by Evelyn Patricia Terry *IN PERSON*

In person at Woodland Pattern.

On view: November 8, 2025–February 6, 2026 | Reception: Sunday, November 16 from 2–5 PM

From Evelyn: Accepting my predicament of nonstop navigating forward into a blind future, I surrendered to my exhibition title, Think Something Revolutionary, Think Change. I felt immersed in a small victory infused with wonder as collaged words emerged from collected alphabets gathered from diverse commercially printed resources. Experiencing life fully in the moment, my feelings moved serendipitously as I worked. Thus, this exhibition’s underlying premise opened outward to deeply encourage viewers to join in and contemplate personal change in four ways: painted prayer drawings, a tribute to Fred Hampton’s last speech on power to the people rendered with smaller assemblages (honoring the exhibition title), and a story in two books celebrating and embracing all American inhabitants as immigrants living together in America.  

From my earliest sensitivity to a world fractured by racism, fake look appeal, agism, gender hierarchies, and different ethnicities, I have longed for inner peace, and my life, daily activities, and thoughts have infused my art with the fierce clarity of proactive speech and actions. I rely heavily on New Materialism and Constructivist ideology as a “making” practice. 

I have been captivated by Fred Hampton’s vision through his work with the Black Panther Party and the Rainbow Coalition. His words resound with unwavering force: “White power to White people, Brown power to Brown people, Yellow power to Yellow people, Black power to Black people.” Into his rhythm, I added: “Red power to Red people.” Though Fred was only twenty-one when the FBI ended his life in 1969, his voice still travels through time. My assemblages representing accepted American racial divisions rise as a chorus in his honor, echoing his call to transform differences into bonds of solidarity.

Throughout my 50+ year career, culturally ethnic dolls created from a variety of materials have often served as models for my figurative drawings and other works. In this exhibition’s pieces, I continue to create in this mode of inspiration, drawing from a collection of found objects. Recycled papers, buttons, beads, glitter, wood, and other items are held together by glue and paint along with my collaged alphabets, capturing my internal layered reactions to currents of social urgency and encouraging voices. Each piece’s title serves as a directive, a closing gesture, a final thread binding feelings and processes to ongoing discovery, vision, revolution, and change. 

Evelyn Patricia Terry is a full-time professional artist whose work is represented in more than 500 public, private, and corporate collections. Since 1970, she has attracted patrons through partnerships with galleries, consultants, and museums, including the Milwaukee Art Museum, Posner Art Gallery, Katie Gingrass Gallery, Peltz Gallery, Nikki Bender & Co., and Sally Stevens, Ltd. in Milwaukee; Valperine Gallery in Madison; Isobel Neal Gallery and Murphy Rabb Inc. in Chicago; and, more recently, Vamp & Tramp Booksellers in Birmingham, Alabama.

In addition to the notable Cynthia Sears Collection, dozens of public collections include her work, among them Marquette University’s Haggerty Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Racine Art Museum, Museum of Wisconsin Art, Beloit College’s Wright Museum of Art, Swarthmore College Libraries, Duke University’s Perkins Library, Rhode Island School of Design’s Fleet Library, UW–Milwaukee’s Golda Meir Library, Stanford University’s Bowes Art & Architecture Library, and the Smithsonian Libraries’ American Art and Portrait Gallery Library.

[Image above: "Fred Hampton Tribute:  Black Power for Black People, Yellow Power for Yellow People, Red Power for Red People, White Power for White People, Brown Power for Brown People."]