After battling cancer for two years, Upstate artist Teda Barrows is using her paintings to show that anything is possible. An exhibition of her works, “A Period of Revolution: All Things Are Possible,” will be on display Oct. 1 through 26 in Gallery III of the Artists Collective | Spartanburg.
An artist’s reception will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, as part of Spartanburg ArtWalk. The reception and exhibition viewing are free and open to the public. The 25 pieces in the show will be offered for purchase with prices ranging from $50 to $200.
“Battling cancer was the worst two years of my life,” says Barrows, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, who moved to the Upstate eight years ago. “Doing things for myself and remembering things that make me happy got me through it.”
She was diagnosed with cancer in 2019. “When you sit in a room and someone tells you that you have cancer, it changes what you think is important,” Barrow says. “I told myself I would do things for me. October almost two years ago, I picked up a paint brush, then joined the Artists Collective. I have learned so much from the wonderful artists at the Collective and will be forever grateful.”
The works in the exhibition reflect that “all things are possible,” she says. “A period of revolution is once around the sun – spring, summer, winter and fall. I hope to inspire people that no matter what they are going through, time goes on and all things are possible.”
As a child, Barrows says, she drew with chalk and pastels. She has been painting with oils for about two years.
Barrows says she paints things that make her happy, and “I hope when people see my work it helps them remember what makes them happy.”
Raising three children didn’t give her much time for art, she says, and “I didn’t think I could make much money drawing, so I went back to school and became a nurse.” It is a profession she would spend 30 years in, and she honors all nurses who trained her by signing all her paintings in white.
“Being a young mom, I wanted my children to have amazing birthday cakes, so I turned my artistic abilities toward learning how to decorate cakes and cookies,” Barrows continues. “I’m a self-taught cake artist, something I’ve spent 20 years doing.”