Teresa graduated from Whanganui’s Quay School of the Arts in 2000 where she studied printmaking and majored in photography. In 2007 she graduated with a Post Graduate Diploma in Art and Design from Auckland University of Technology. In 2019 she co-founded LUMEN Studios & Gallery, an artist-run space in Taranaki where she is a resident artist. She specialises in handcrafted paper collage and occasionally designs websites, publications and promotional material.
After graduating Art School Teresa coordinated and promoted exhibitions, festivals and arts and culture projects in Whanganui including the Whanganui Festival of Glass and the Whanganui Summer School of the Arts. Teresa has experience in fundraising, strategic planning, project management, communications, marketing and promotion.
After working in the arts and culture sector for 10 years, Teresa became a mother and shifted her focus to natural health and holistic wellbeing. She studied various pathways to wellbeing including Naturopathy, Psychosynthesis, Meditation and Shamanic Healing. She is a spiritual counsellor and a specialist in New Zealand Native Flower Essence Therapy.
She has been a student with the Medicine Woman Centre for Esoteric and Shamanic Studies since 2011 and studying Buddhism for 15 years, regularly attending intensive silent meditation retreats. From 2015-2016 she studied psychology and counselling with the Institute of Psychosynthesis. In 2018 she became a Buddhist Chaplain apprentice and trained to assist people to pass peacefully.
Teresa has been using collage as a tool for exploring consciousness and deepening self-awareness for over 20 years. Her handcrafted collages are often autobiographical in nature, but she also creates work expressing transpersonal themes and the universal path of awakening. Her artworks are alchemical tools for transmuting consciousness, promoting wholeness and a wholesome relationship with oneself and the world. Teresa’s creative work is influenced by Transpersonal Psychology, Shamanism and esoteric traditions including Buddhism and Alchemy.
She has been involved in a number of community organisations over the years including serving as chairperson of the Whanganui Artist’s Guild and the Whanganui Community Arts Centre. In 2011 she was elected to the Kaitake Community Board, and during her three year term she focused on environmental and public health issues and opportunities for young people. From 2015-2019 she served as the President of Vibrational Essences New Zealand Incorporated.