I explore various subjects in my paintings that allow me to process themes affiliated with motherhood such as sexual/social/cultural identity, purpose, body image, and postpartum mental illness. I am drawn to using light, color, and lost & found edges to shift the viewer into my perspective of motherhood and our role in humanity. I seek to bring abstraction to representational paintings in order to capture the ambiguity and complexity present in the literal nature of representational work.

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Before moving to New York City, Terina, a Māori-American artist from Lā’ie, HI, studied portraiture and figurative art at Brigham Young University- Hawai’i. She then took color and drawing courses in San Francisco, CA. While her aesthetic is influenced by the expressive realism of her instructors, Terina is inspired by her contemporary NYC environment and explores incorporating expressive & abstract elements into her work. Terina has exhibited work in group and solo settings online and in New York City, as well as been published in art magazines such as ALL She Makes, 2022.