An Artistic Spirit: Terry Burnette?s Paintings Hang at Bristol Library

By: Joe Tennis/Bristol Herald Courier | TriCities.com
Published: December 06, 2007

She was a carefree spirit.

Carefree and artistic.

And her life was full of color, just like the way she enjoyed swimming. How she helped others. Or how she painted her cat.

In one painting, Terry Burnette’s feline sat in a bathtub, waiting for a faucet to drip.

In another, that cat was just getting ready to pounce.

And that was just like Terry Burnette might have been getting ready to do – in life.

‘SHOWED AN APTITUDE’

Born in 1960, Terry grew up with an artistic flair, attending schools in Bristol Tennessee: Anderson, Vance and Tennessee High.

"Very early, she showed an aptitude for drawing," said her mother, Charlotte Burnette.

"She took drawing classes on Saturday mornings from Don Seibert, then art director of WCYB-TV."

In seventh grade, young Terry Burnette entered a drawing she made from a photo of herself – when she was a year old – and won a prize in a Junior League sponsored contest held at the Bristol library.

She also took art classes with Ed Lockett at Vance Middle School.

"Terry had a photographic eye and good drawing skills," Charlotte Burnette said. "Many of her drawings are framed by teachers and hung in classrooms."

‘A GREAT KID’

Call those drawings – those paintings – this young woman’s legacy.

In 1983, just at the brink of what might have been the beginning of a great art career, Terry Burnette lost her life when she drowned at the beach of Avon, N.C., on Hatteras Island.

She was only 23.

At the time, Terry had gone on vacation with some friends. And she was jogging on the beach, her mother said.

"She apparently fainted and fell in the water and drowned," Charlotte Burnette said.

Terry was the oldest of Curtis and Charlotte Burnette’s three children.

"And she was a great kid – blond hair and blue eyes," Charlotte Burnette said.

Artistic and carefree.

‘IT’S TOO EMOTIONAL’

This year, the Burnette family chose to display some examples of Terry’s work at the Bristol Public Library, as a handful of her colorful oil paintings now hang on the wall of an upper floor gallery.

Some stand as tall as seven feet.

"It has the largest pieces of any show we’ve had up," said Jud Barry, the Bristol librarian. "The paintings are mostly abstract. And it fits the space perfectly."

In Knoxville, too, a couple more of Terry’s paintings are on permanent loan at the University of Tennessee – and hang in the art and architecture building.

UT is where Terry had gone to school. And there, today, art students can further their studies thanks to a scholarship established in Terry’s name.

How does the scholarship fund keep Terry’s memories alive?

"I can’t answer that," Charlotte Burnette said, wiping a tear from her eye. "It’s too emotional."

‘OUT OF THE BASEMENT’

For years, however, many of Terry’s paintings simply lay in storage at her parents’ home in Bristol Tennessee.

They were wrapped in plastic – and put in the basement.

Some are now for sale.

And why?

"I would like for them to be out of the basement," Charlotte Burnette said, sighing. "If someone wanted to pay for them, I’d like for [that money] to go into the scholarship fund."

Burnette sighed.

"It’s a shame," she said, "for them to just be covered up in storage."

jtennis@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0704

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