Graphic Artist Gets To Bottom Of Poster

The sophistication gained from a master's degree in art education may help to fortify model Terra Sheridan from public embarrassment. She will need all of her panache because an imprint of her bottom, in red paint, is decorating posters all over town.

Sheridan's partial and ambiguous likeness appears on the movie posters for KDUR's annual Furniture as Art benefit auction, which begins at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Durango Arts Center.

The creator of the poster is Fort Lewis College graphics student Derric Wise, who is also Sheridan's longtime boyfriend. The two moved together from Washington state to Durango.

Wise said on the phone Monday that his solution for a graphic to publicize the auction came only after extensive research.

"I pored over art books," he said. He added that the idea of the particular part of the body that rests on furniture led him to 1960s body painting.

"It didn't go down well until I explained it, that edgy visual with a big butt," Wise said.

He explained his work to Nancy Stoffer, KDUR's station manager. Stoffer said last week she was so taken with Wise's research and reasoning that she decided to use his image.

The posters will publicize handmade furniture donated by 26 artists: Ilze Aviks, Bill Bowlby, Mike Brieger, Dave Claussen, Amy Felker, Caryl Goode, Deborah Gorton, Deb Greenblatt, Deb Grewal, Miki Harder, Tim Hunter, Sam Cook and Elizabeth Kinahan, Mary Ellen Long, Maureen May, Ron and Carol Ozaki, Lisa Pedolsky, John Perry, Yuri Potemkin, Bryan Saren, Dave Sipe, Scott Smith, Susan and Jeff Wise and Amy Wendland.

Besides the art, food, drink and music, with Tom and Chad MacCluskey on piano and guitar, an additional amusement this year will be discovering whether the loquacious artist still has a girlfriend.

April 01, 2008