Who and What is RBF Gallery?

Terri Symington

Artist and Creator of RBF Gallery

Terri's artistic journey emerges from movement and form, first cultivated through her years as a dancer with a Houston ballet/jazz company. Her current work focuses on impressionistic figurative paintings that capture the fluidity and expression she first discovered through dance. This evolution from performance to visual art reflects her core artistic philosophy: making the invisible visible through creative expression.

Working primarily in oils and mixed media, Terri's work embraces the beauty of human imperfection. Her paintings deliberately reveal underlying construction lines and intentionally unfinished areas, reflecting our perpetual state of becoming. Like the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is mended with gold to honor its history, her work celebrates how human experiences – both challenges and triumphs – create our unique beauty. This philosophy manifests in her impressionistic style, where visible brushstrokes and thoughtfully incomplete elements invite viewers to engage with the artwork's evolving narrative, much like their own.

Her technique combines classical training with intuitive approaches, resulting in work that bridges figurative-realism and impressionism. The human form serves as her primary subject, allowing her to investigate themes of visibility, movement, and self-expression.

Her artistic credentials span multiple creative disciplines, including roles as a fashion illustrator and art director for a prominent fashion/home furnishings company and an award-winning interior designer and Professional member of ASID. From all these careers she brings a sophisticated understanding of space, color, and composition to her current work.

Recent recognition includes participation in the group show “Seductions” at the Texas Woodlands Glade Gallery 2022,  as well as a group show “Painting the Figure Now” at the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art in 2021, and Artsy's 2018 "The New Nude" exhibition and publication in "PoetsArtists." She is represented in 33 Contemporary gallery's roster of curated artists through which she will have artwork included in the Lunar Codex project that puts artists’ work in the moon.  She has been featured in Artsy Shark online art magazine, as well as a featured artist in the art and literature journal ArtAscent.  Previously, she maintained studios in Switzerland and Houston before relocating to her current base in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

One of Terri's desires and ambitions was always to share her knowledge and experience to help elevate the journey of others. Her unique perspective on how one creates their own environments and life experiences was a perception she held since childhood. That perspective on life, along with a broad range of experiences and curiosity and interests is what brought to fruition the RBF Gallery with the belief that art is the fuel that makes all aspects of life so fascinating — and that it is within reach for all humans to embrace, given the right mindset and awareness.

Through RBF Gallery, Terri creates a space where artistic expression transcends traditional boundaries, inviting viewers to reconsider their relationship with art and its place in everyday life. The gallery champions the vital importance of critical and independent thinking, while simultaneously nurturing an open and inquiring mind — a delicate balance that Terri believes is essential for genuine artistic appreciation and personal growth. By curating experiences that challenge conventional thinking, she encourages visitors to question established narratives, form their own conclusions, and remain receptive to new ideas and perspectives. This approach reflects Terri's conviction that true creativity flourishes at the intersection of rigorous intellectual inquiry and boundless curiosity about the world around us and that a person can manifest the life they desire through artful living, given that the right mindset is practiced and lived.

The RBF Gallery

"Art is not merely what hangs on walls – it is the very fabric of human consciousness, woven into our DNA. At Resting Bitch Face Gallery, we believe that our relationship with art fundamentally shapes the quality of our existence, both in our conscious appreciation and in the subtle ways it influences our daily experience.

Living artfully is not a privilege reserved for the wealthy or affluent – it is our birthright as human beings. Art exists in the way we observe our world, in how we arrange our space, in the choices we make daily. It transcends economic barriers and social status, offering its transformative power to anyone who chooses to embrace it.

The depth of our artistic engagement mirrors our capacity for independent thought. True independence begins with a profound realization: the permission to think freely, to form our own judgments, to experience art on our own terms – this permission can only come from within. It is not granted by critics, curators, or collective opinion. When we claim this inherent right to our own perspective, we free ourselves from collective opinions and prescribed reactions, discovering our authentic response to art – and by extension, to life itself.

We recognize that our environment profoundly influences our capacity for fulfillment, and art plays a crucial role in shaping that environment. Yet the true power lies in our mindset – our conscious choice to engage deeply and personally with the art before us. Every viewer who enters this space brings their own reality, their own context, their own truth.

Here, we encourage critical observation not just of the art, but of your relationship with it. Your response to a piece reveals as much about you as it does about the work itself. This self-awareness, this conscious choice to engage authentically with art, expands the possibilities of human experience and deepens the quality of life itself.

Welcome to a space where independent thinking meets artistic expression – where your unique perspective isn't just valid, it's vital. The only permission you need to think independently is your own.

— Terri Symington —

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