Meet the Artist

Teresa Whitaker

I didn’t set out to become an artist — it found me early on.

From an early age, art and horses shaped the course of my life — though for many years, both had to wait quietly in the background.

In high school, when asked to choose between Art and Chemistry, I chose Art without hesitation. Encouraged by a teacher who deeply believed in his students, I earned scholarship support to study art in college. During my first advanced art class, we were assigned a simple contour drawing. While most students sketched the still life in front of them, I drew the entire room — every desk, corner, and detail I could see. The professor pulled me aside and told me to gather my things and leave, for I was too advanced for the class. Discouraged, I walked away from formal training and shortly after, life led me in a different direction — marriage and raising a family.

Creativity never truly left me. In the late 1980s, discovering colored pencils — and later, color theory — transformed the way I understood art. It became more than technique; it became a language for expressing what words could not. Even while balancing responsibilities and life’s demands, I continued creating whenever I could.

At the center of everything has always been my lifelong love of horses. From receiving my first horse as a young girl to riding with professional trainers and working closely with extraordinary animals throughout my life, horses have profoundly shaped who I am. In 2004, a serious riding accident left me with a shattered leg and months of recovery. What began as a devastating setback became a turning point, leading me to discover new ways of understanding and communicating with horses through natural horsemanship and positive reinforcement methods. That deeper emotional connection continues to inspire my work today.

As I entered semi-retirement, the pull to create returned stronger than ever. Free from expectations, gatekeepers, and limitations, I began drawing and sculpting fully on my own terms. My journey into sculpture expanded further through study with renowned sculptors Veryl Goodnight in 2011 and David Lemon in 2016, opening an entirely new dimension of artistic expression.