Meet Terry MacCarthy

About Terry MacCarthy

Terry is a stained glass artist from Colne Valley, and creates his masterpieces in his own studio in his garden in Golcar! Terry has been making stained glass windows and pieces for around 20 years, and we are confident that he is one of the best teachers to learn from.

Terry first stepped through the door of Globe Arts Studio as a fused glass client - wanting to experiment with new art styles, and learn some new skills.

Terry spent a few years travelling around different parts of the world, but unfortunately realised the financial struggles of trying to make a living as an artist and a traveller. Our brilliant stained glass tutor has bags of experience from working in a variety of different fields including the civil service, youth work and drug and alcohol counselling, but has always had a passion for being creative and expressing himself artistically. Terry currently works at the University of Huddersfield supporting students with disabilities - mostly in the Art & Design School, but we are still lucky enough to have him sharing his stained glass expertise with our clients at Globe Arts Studio every now and again.

Terry is always busy juggling lots of different tasks, whether it be working on his Masters Degree in Graphic Design, teaching at the studio, working with students or creating some beautiful stained glass windows.

“For my Masters, my major project is looking at the status and function of ‘Heritage Crafts’ in our modern world, and the distinction between our romantic idea of a craftsperson, as against someone making a living, working eight hours a day producing goods for sale. I am also developing work using the same design and exploring different media and disciplines.

Over the years I have produced various pieces using textiles, illustration, photography, and printing.”

Terry’s Artists Influences

“Through out my creative years I have been influenced by many and varied artists.  An important influence has always been the Arts and Crafts movement, and the Bauhaus movement, which have driven my curiosity with the distinctions between form and function, and ascetic beauty. Wider influences include David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Japanese wood-block prints, and more generally the use of mathematics and geometry to create beautiful images [Golden Mean, fractals, tangents, etc]”

Where to find Terry at Globe Arts Studio

We are very lucky to have Terry at Globe Arts this Summer with a fantastic two-day Stained Glass workshop, running Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th August.

Or you can also find Terry at Globe Arts for our November/December term, where Terry will be here for a 6-week Stained Glass course! “I get an enormous amount of pleasure from teaching.  Getting great satisfaction from enabling people to realise their ideas.  At the beginning of the course, people have an idea in their heads of what they want to do, or sometimes, no idea.  Six weeks later seeing the joy and satisfaction on someone’s face realising that they have a beautiful object in their hands that they have made.”

Terry’s advice to anyone wanting to come to a class and have a go at making something":

 “Become a believer in ‘creative aberrations’ i.e. mistakes. That’s where the interesting and beautiful bits come from.

 Albert Einstein once said, “A person who never makes a mistake, never makes anything”. This is so true whatever you are doing or making, have a go, don’t worry about what other people think, and enjoy the time and space you can create to be yourself.”