The Artist
About Terry Henderson
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Born and raised in England, I left the beloved island home in 2001 to live in a Florida swamp,
and that is where I've been ever since.
I began my life in the Kent town of Beckenham in south east London. The year was ​1958
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By all accounts it was a vintage year for Gits.
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In fact it is a year that has never been bettered or surpassed in terms of its Gitness. ​
This quality of Gitness has provided an inherently twisted sense of humour and a fertile imagination, which usually seeks refuge in the form of oil on canvas, and occasionally graphite on paper.
I have been painting and drawing since childhood, never knowing a time when I wasn't. A long creative evolution has led to a love of the bizarre and surreal.
And as for a Git living in a swamp, there can be only one suitable term of endearment.
Thus, when the Git arrived in the swamp, the SwampyGit was born.
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The paintings and drawings displayed here are examples of my work spanning over 30 years. All artists experience an evolutionary process of creation, and the work produced will always become a reflection of one's stage of life, the attitudes and awareness that one held, and the feelings which accompanied it at the time of making.
Looking at the images now, I am reminded of where I was when I made them, and how much that can say about the journey of life itself, and the extent to which we can change as individuals as we navigate our way through this often perplexing existence.
The process of creating art is an interactive one, a two-way street for the artist. It can be deeply impactive on a personal level. As images evolve on the canvas, things can be touched deep within oneself, and trigger a process of internal change and growth that can at one and the same time be filled with both joy and pain.
For me, it's not actually about the end result that is so important, or the finished item as such. Morover, and crucially, it is much more about the very journey of creating it that becomes so profoundly instructive, life-changing and valuable.
It can reveal and bring forth from that divine inner sanctum of the soul, that mysterious 'Inner Continent' as one could call it - things that once lay buried, unknown, ignored and unvisited. It is thus from that sacred space within, that the strange transformative process of creativity begins.
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Swampygit. Oil on board. 15" X 20"
WIKTIONARY DEFINITION OF GIT
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Git is usually used as an insult, more severe than twit but less severe than a true profanity like wanker, and may often be used affectionately between friends.​
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In the British Isles, 'git' is frequently used in conjunction with another word to achieve a more specific meaning. For example, a smarmy git refers to a person of a slimy ingratiating disposition; a jammy git would be a person with underserved luck.
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The phrase grumpy old git denoting a cantankerous old man, is used with particular frequency.
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The word has been ruled by the Speaker of the House of Commons as unparliamentary language.
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...I guess that puts me out of politics then. My favourite word has been banned!
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What a bunch of miserable wankers.