Someone ought to have told F. Scott Fitzgerald that there are indeed 'second acts in American lives,' and Teresa Mattos is surely enjoying one of them.

After 15 years plying her trade as an artist in a multitude of mediums, artfully designing interior murals, color consulting with architects and contractors, all the while successfully raising two wonderful boys-- Teresa finally found herself in the envious position of having the time to focus her energy on desire -her desire- to capture on canvas the essence of the people in her life. And so she began to study once again the mechanics of painting the human form, returning finally to her love of rendering the figure.

The journey evolved organically. Tools changed. The scaffolding came down. The easel went up. After years of discipline, classes, workshops and artist's retreats, it is obvious to anyone who looks at her paintings that she has a true gift for infusing the subject on the canvas with an intensely emotional and beautiful, even romantic realism.

Teresa, in her own words:

"It is my life's desire to stop time for an instant, to make a clear and beautiful statement with every painting I complete. A painting can't tell you everything about a person, but it should always tell you at least one thing about that person, one thing that is clear and beautiful, and most importantly, true. History can tell us the facts. But art tells us the truth behind those facts, the human emotion with all of our foibles, and fumbling and, yes, our heart and our heroism. Keats put it best:

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
its loveliness increases; it will never
pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing."

My desire is to create a thing of beauty that will provide the person who looks at it joy forever, just that simple."