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Terry's 25th Anniversary article in the Watertown Public Opinion (July 30, 2003)
For Terry Redlin, the timing was good for him. And bad for his boss. A quarter of a century ago, Redlin - already possessing a successful art career on the side - returned from an art show in Tulsa to his job as an art director at a publishing firm in St. Paul, Minn. When he returned to work, he found that his assistant was gone, a large part of his work area had been cleaned out, and his head art director had an ultimatum for him. Redlin could either take on more responsibilities for the same pay (a slight promotion) or work under an equal of his from another department (a slight demotion). Redlin told his boss he wanted to think about it. The decision didn't take long. "I walked into my office and thought, 'This is the breaking point,'" he said. "I thought about it for a minute and a half, and went out and said, 'I quit.'" With that, Redlin was on his own, with only his art career to fall back on. Twenty-five years, about 200 paintings, and countless prints sold, Redlin will be celebrating his first quarter-century of being an independent artist Saturday, Aug. 2 with an appearance at the Redlin Art Center in Watertown. The appearance - during which Redlin will sign prints and other collectibles - will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Going into art full-time was, in Redlin's ds, "scary." He was considering the economic uncertainty of the late 1970s, and came to the conclusion that he had better come up with a contingency plan before he was out of a job. So he started painting and framing his works out of his family's house in the Twin Cities, while still working full time for the publishing firm. Eighteen hour days were the norm. It was the initial stages of his "five-year plan" to becoming a totally independent artist. Even his five-year plan had a backup plan. While working with his own framing, Redlin came up with a matte cutter that could do its job in seven seconds flat he said - much faster than normal matte cutters. If the paintings didn't sell, maybe he could fall back on that, he thought. He used his job at the publishing company to his advantage. Working for a large publishing company meant there were a lot of magazines to put together. Redlin would make the inhouse magazines a deal: He'd give them free wildlife paintings for their covers, and he'd get a free ad for his works somewhere in the publication. He began to think he would make it when the UPS delivery person who took his painting orders to galleries - and who also did deliveries for the biggest outdoor print people in the business - said that he was shipping more of Redlin's works to galleries than anyone else's. The five year plan got truncated to a 3-1/2 year plan when he turned down the ultimatum from his boss. Now he was in it for better or worse. He soon found out he didn't have to worry. "When we went on our own, as soon as word got out, the business quadrupled," said Redlin. And so began Redlin's march toward becoming one of America's most popular and successful artists. Popular enough to have raised tens of millions of dollars for conservation projects through sales of his donations. Successful enough to have a $10 million museum erected in Watertown to house his works and not see a dime from it, as everything sold in the Center goes toward the building's operations. And popular enough to have an elementary school named after him in Sioux Falls. He's also been sought out by top performers from other entertainment mediums. Recently, some of his art was requested to adorn the new album by Mannheim Steamroller, which owns one of the top artist-owned recording companies in the world. Although at first Redlin was unsure of the deal, until he realized that he had a kindred spirit in Chip Davis, the driving force behind Mannheim Steamroller. For instance, both had gone independent with their art decades ago and become world-renowned for it. Today, Redlin's "Good Morning America" is on the cover of Steamroller's album "American Spirit." Redlin goes at a leisurely pace these days. He does about seven paintings a year, and has branched out to doing golfing paintings to go with his works depicting wildlife and scenes of Americana. The main accomplishments he wants to achieve are to stay healthy, because there's a lot he wants to enjoy - and already has. "I went on my own when I was 37 years old, and that was like being rich," said Redlin. "I didn't want anybody telling me what I could or couldn't do, and that feels rich." Editor Note...this of course is a recent (of many articles) published about Terry's life, work, and achievements. Those wishing more may go to "google.com"; search on "Redlin Art" or "Art Center" and find thousands of web pages. |
Things I Didn't Know
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