The horizon and juxtaposition of colors are the subjects of award-winning artist, Teresa Dirks’ bold mixed media abstract art, influenced by the Colorfield Movement.

“Growing up around seamstresses, quilters, gardeners, and farmers, rural farm life, I learned to nurture, growing, and making. This made me the artist I am today.

For Teresa, it’s all about the Horizon. She centers her work on our linear connection to cultivation, nature, and attention: “Everyone, no matter where they live, has a horizon. And that horizon commands our attention and respect from time to time. My work investigates relationships and envisions a world where we are all equally respected … intersections where good things happen …. My hope is to create a joie de vivre to remind us of what life truly is.” 

With a BA in both English and Art, and an MA in education from William Woods University, Dirks taught environmental education and art education in public schools for many years, but her passion for painting inspired her lifelong career. Today you can find her in her studio in the historical Kansas City Livestock Exchange Building–an ideal location:  her 5th-floor studio overlooking the city skyline, merging Kaw and Missouri rivers, train tracks, and bluffs that separate those two worlds.