Randall Teal brings his passion and
commitment to an array of artistic outlets
By Sara Jarrett
Oregon Daily Emerald
Hanging in front of the wine-colored, dec
orative curtain inside the University coffee
shop, the images draw attention. Students
waiting for their morning coffee, afternoon
fix or late night tune-up, can’t help but be
drawn to the stirring quality of the artist’s
visions.
Their lack of detail somehow makes them
more descriptive. It’s as if the true essence of
a single thought exists in each one.
Randall Teal, creator of the 32 paintings,
is a graduate student in the School of Archi
tecture and Allied Arts, and a man of many
interests. The guitarist, pianist, singer and
painter grew up surrounded by the paint
ings of his mother, a retired counselor who
used art as therapy, so Teal’s curiosity of the
arts was piqued at an early age.
The 28-year-old eclecticist borrowed his
mother’s acrylic paints seven years ago and
eventually graduated to oils. His work is
now regularly showcased in the Eugene
area, and in addition to local coffee shops
he has had exhibits at the Laveme Krause
Gallery in Lawrence Hall.
“He’s quite surprising,” says Alison Sny
der, assistant professor in the architecture
department, who served as Teal’s adviser
for the paintings in The Buzz. “He doesn’t
tell you what he’s working on, and then this
whole body of work pops out. For instance,
I had no idea that he was painting until
about halfway through the project. ”
With an undergraduate degree in psy
chology, an interest in design and a back
ground in observing the healing power of
art in therapy, Teal sees his craft from many
unique perspectives. In fact, he was tom be
tween pursuing a master’s degree in archi
tecture and following in his mother’s foot
steps. His final decision to pursue design
over art therapy stems from his need for “a
bigger theatre to practice in,” he admits.
“Art and design is a part of me,” he says.
“Exploring creative ability within con
straints is also psychologically interesting.”
While a lot of artists don’t like putting
boundaries around their work, Teal is not
put off by the concept. While his process is
sometimes to literally see what will happen
if he picks up a paint brush during different
emotional states, his work is often more
structured than that.
“While he s trying to work out his own
theories [of art and design], he goes through
a lot of trial and error,” Synder says.
When Teal consciously decides to ex
plore a certain emotion, he says that a paint
ing can take months to perfect. That may
sound like .a long time, but Teal is quick to
point out that it’s months of “intense
spurts,” rather than constantly working.
The time he spends using this process is
evident in the layers of colors and textures
in much of his work. Mostly abstract in de
sign, Teal’s paintings have both striking and
calming characteristics.
“Across Space and Time,” for instance, was
inspired by the innovative, electronic musi
cian John Cage, who once said that lines rep
resent the interconnectedness of people in
space and time. The painting is memorable
not only because of the layers of burnt orange
hues but also because of the linear black lines
painted over the top. Aromas of humanity
linger between the analytical designs.
“This one took me forever,” Teal says, as
he gazes at his creation. The layers represent
inspiration — a notion that to him is like
“brushing information on information. ”
Sometimes the process of making art
helps him resolve an upsetting emotional
state. Before painting “Writing on the Wall,”
Teal says he was very energetic and frustrat
ed and in a confused state of mind.
By the time the art piece was finished,
however, he was no longer upset. His de
scriptions of that process suggest that paint
ing usually has such cathartic effects for him.
Sometimes Teal doesn’t set out to paint a
specific feeling at all but simply uses the
process to reveal an emotional state he can’t
identify; it took him a week to paint one ti
tled “Thinking Out Loud. ”
“I had lot of things that I needed to work
out during this time,” Teal says. What came
from this internal place is a painting that ex
udes frustration and confusion, he reflect
ed. The swirls of color and thick layers of
indiscriminate strokes cause the same emo
tional response in the observer.
Always interested in the audience’s per
ception of "his work, Teal enjoys hearing
feedback before offering his own insights.
He acknowledged that he likes to get peo
ple talking.
“This one creates a lot of discussion,” he
says, pointing to one of his bigger paintings.
“Confrontation,” a 4-by-9 piece, can be in
terpreted as many things. At first glance it
looks like an eye peering out from the center
of a whirlpool of colors. The circle gets big
ger and bigger until it reaches the end of the
canvas and falls away to infinity.
In creating it however, Teal says he tried
to address what if feels like to acknowledge
your own potential but be fearful of it at the
same time.
“I wanted to create, a feeling of unknown
depth or layers,” he says. The observer is
left to decide whether it’s frightening or ex
citing, he explained. “You can stand and
face it or move out. ”
A simple strip of yellow, painted on one
of the 4-foot ends provides the portal.
Although Teal created it with a vertical
orientation, “Confrontation” hangs hori
zontally on the wall outside of the arcade in
the EMU’s Break; it’s a change that Teal
doesn’t mind. He actually thinks it’s inter
esting that his work can be interpreted dif
ferently with such a manipulation.
Not all of Teal’s creations are completely
abstract. “In Her Eyes” is an abstraction of
something literal, the artist explains. It’s a
portrait piece that attempts to create a deep
er description of the subject than reproduc
ing her physical attributes would. The fa
miliar shapes of a moon, a sun and a cloud
manifest themselves in blue and red sweeps
of paint.
Because Teal is also a musician, he feels a
deep connection with that side of his cre
ativity. One of his favorite painting process
es is to turn on a favorite tune and let it
guide his hand.
“Sometimes I just want to explore what
Bach is,” he says.
He rarely envisions the final product dur
ing those music-generated sessions. In the
same vein, visions of colors are also infre
quent — he usually lays his palate out in
front of him and listens to which ones talk,
he says.
“I work with intent without attachment
to results,” he says.
The results, however, speak for them
selves.
“Randy doesn’t fit a mold,” Snyder says.
“He has a more art school way of thinking,
and he wants to bring it to his design work.
He’s deeply committed to what he’s doing. ”
Whether it’s an emotional exploration,
musical expression or more literal interpre
tation, each painting hanging in The Buzz is
a unique complexity that awaits wandering
eyes.
Teal’s exhibit, “Disco very/Faith/Emo
tion,” is currently on display at The Buzz
until March 17. All paintings are for sale.
The UO Cultural Forum, the exhibit’s spon
sor, has a price list in its EMU office, Suite 2.
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Photo illustration Azle Malinao-Alvarez Emerald
Randall Teal, shown here working in his Lawrence Hall architecture studio, has 32 paintings hanging in The Buzz coffee shop.