Among his many faceted creations Terence Flannery creates life size vibrant celebrity sculptures that realistically animate well-known people. He captures the most beloved traits of wild animals, and humor kids with playful farcical hatchlings. Expressing his passions, humor and compassion this multi-media artist puts his hand on your heart and inspires you to laugh, invokes patriotic pride, and moves you to wonder, "How did he do that?"
His extensive portfolio of three-dimensional work includes emotionally uplifting patriotic woodcarvings convincing the most experienced eye that the piece is real or caste in bronze. A commissioned mannequin of Elton John sits at a piano in a Bonita Springs, Florida home, dressed fittingly for any occasion or as the mood strikes. If art is expression of self, and self is expression of one's history, this bio may begin to explain Terry's take on life.
Flannery was born in Manchester, United Kingdom, and as he says, educated in the University of Life. He briefly worked as a coal miner until joining the British Army at age 15 as a boy musician serving for over eight years. His sixteenth birthday saw him in Berlin with the band of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and being tutored by the Principal Trombone of the Berliner Philharmonic Orchestra. Honorably discharged from the army, Terry slid his talent into a professional music career.
He sang and played in the top British big bands of the 70's. "Everything from Strip clubs to Buckingham Palace" He played a two year stint performing live with the popular Bob Miller and the Millermen Band on the BBC radio show "Parade of the Pops" featuring artists like Cat Stevens and Jimi Hendricks. He worked all the famous London venues such as the Savoy and Hilton hotels, the Royal Festival Hall, and the London Palladium. His most memorable engagements during his musical career were the birthday party of Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace and flying to the Arab Emirates for a one-night performance for an Arab Prince.
He also flirted with a stage career as a stand up comedian yet with time his artwork won over his many talents. The popularity of his humorous artwork gradually began to make more demands on his time than music or comedy. His early creations of musical cartoons and off-the-wall custom faux painted furniture set the stage for a 1992 move to Hollywood, California.
Here he worked in the movie related industry and eventually moved to North Hollywood and was hired as wood shop manager to a premier movie-prop replica company. he was later promoted to production manager before leaving to open his own studio workshop. He designed and built the imaginative display cabinets for the company products. He also worked on special projects with various companies. He installed the two Terminator Endo skeleton robots T2 3D attraction at Universal Studios Los Angeles theme park.
Gracing comedian Drew Carey's home is Flannery's "Sky at Night" a 900 square foot mural depicting brilliant nebulae, star formations and cosmic clouds painted on the ceiling. Flannery used a special high-tech ultra violet light paint that effectively gives Carey two paintings to enjoy -- one by daylight and another transformed with Uv light and fiber optics. He headed the Lazarus Lighting installation of this $175,000 fiber optics special effects display.
He now has a new studio in Ft Myers. The slower pace of southwest Florida and its abundance of reptilian wildlife have influenced a pleasant shift in creative efforts to include a line of imaginative creatures hatched from eggs. His artwork remains true to his Hollywood influences where nothing is quite what it seems, and his pieces always hide a surprise to make you smile.