March 4th, First Thursday 6 pm at the Cucina Cafe in the GoggleWorks featuring Ed Terrell

Ed Terrell is a local artist from Reading, Pennsylvania. He was born in Philadelphia but came to Reading when he was six years old. He went to elementary school right up the street from the GoggleWorks—Lauers Park. Art has been a big part of his life, he says. "Ever since I can remember—even going back to the sixth grade. Even in school I was entering in contests and stuff like that. The reason I mention Lauers Park is that recently we had a dedication of a piece of my artwork there. We donated it to the school. I was there for that dedication, and it was so emotional for me because I started out there in that school and never thought a piece of my art work would be there in that lobby."

Ed Terrell left Reading in 1970 and went out west to California. From there he went to Europe. He stayed over in Europe and then went on to Asia and Africa for about thirty years. He just recently came back about ten years ago. He's lived off his art all of his life. It was painting, sculpture, or crafts—whatever he felt like doing. "I’ve lived off my creativity. I owe that to my perseverance. Art is not an easy profession, but I felt I needed to stick with it because it made me feel good. It was something coming from me. It was something I could control. Even with the ups and downs of the so-called starving artist I’ve stayed with this and till this day I’m very thankful that I did."

Ed Terrell is the president and art director ACOR. For more information, visit www.acor-pa.org