Teressa was born and raised in New Jersey and grew up in Philadelphia, PA. After the birth of her two sons and the death of her mother and grand parents, Teressa enrolled in and graduated from Tracey-Warner School of Design in Phila. in '75.
Late in 1977, Teressa gathered her two young sons and relocated to Atlanta, GA where she hoped to revive her career as a fashion designer. She founded a new chapter of the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers and brought the fashion and jewelry designers together, if only for a little while.
Being an outsider from a northern city did not foster immediate acceptance of change and new ideas. Not one for unnecessary battles, Teressa decided to leave the group and became more involved with the art community and continued the training she had begun at Moore College of Art in Phila. By taking classes in Surface Design and Jewelry Construction at the Atlanta Campus of GSU she was finally able to create the fabric she wanted for her designs and not limited to the prints and visions of others.
From '85 to '88, Teressa taught in the Atlanta School System and began making masks. During her time in Atlanta Teressa created a line of Wearable Art, a Signature Souvenir T-Shirt for an Underground Atlanta Diner Club and the first, as far as she knows, Arts-in-Intercultural Education organization to teach children about cultural diversity. It was called Creativity International, inc.
Before the '96 Olympics were won for Atlanta, she designed and introduced an intra-system program that involved 4 mainstream public schools working with each other to discover the power of 'diversity training'. 2 middle and 2 elementary schools. The students were one-on-one class wise, one mainstream and one ESOL.
The students exchanged pictures and letters. It was an exercise in writing for the ESL students and understanding for the mainstream students and their teachers. The outcomes of the project were:
1. better understanding on the parts of the students and teachers who participated
2. more awareness, sensitivity and appreciation from the students for each other's cultural differences.
The students had an opportunity to meet each other at a party that was held in their honor at the end of the school year. There was a program by the groups who were hoping to be part of the Opening Day Ceremonies, certificates were awarded to the teachers, the kids got t-shirts and everyone had an opportunity to view the 'Gift Quilt' that they would soon be able to sign.
There was an art contest with the best drawings chosen
to be transferred to the 'Olympic Gift Quilt' that was later presented to the Peruvian Paralympic Delegation and taken to Lima to be put on display. Our quilt was a registered entry in the Georgia Quilters Olympic Project.
Despite much interest and requests from teachers to repeat the program with more funding the next year, that was the end of Teressa's public school involvement and fabric period. The next several years contained very little art, but one very important piece did emerge. Her experiences over the past decade were expressed in a Chinese influenced, tie-dyed, denim coat that had the long flowing sleeves of a kimono and a large collar that was edged with wire that made it stand up and curve in many directions.
2004, enter video production training and the beginnings of Studio M'PRESS as an on air exhibit space for artists. Teressa is a designer/artist/videographer-producer and the founder of Channel Studio M'PRESS, Artists and the Arts.
