Derrick Te Paske has worked as a carpenter, an English teacher, a photographer, a documentary filmmaker and an art dealer. He recently retired as Professor and Chair of the Communication Arts Department of Framingham State University.

His documentary productions have been screened at the New England Film and Video Festival, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and PBS; his photographs have been exhibited at the Boston Center for the Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art.

He is an Artist Member of the Medici Society (School of the MFA, Boston), the American Association of Woodturners and the New England Sculptors Association (NESA). His work is in the collection of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston) and the permanent collection of the Peabody Essex Museum.

During my thirty years as a university professor of media studies, I was primarily concerned with theoretical principles and digital methods. In purposeful contrast, my art always involves wood and other tangible materials, employs tools and processes which are low tech, and results in unique and very physical objects.

That doesn’t really surprise me, because ever since I was a boy in rural Iowa, I have enjoyed making things with my hands. So far as I can remember it's as much fun as when I was a boy, and by now I also find such work to be ecological, therapeutic, even redemptive. If it sometimes appears to represent what I call “inefficiency in the pursuit of the unnecessary,” I embrace that contrarian perspective in quiet defiance. Much of the pleasure is that it makes me feel connected with ancient artists and artisans - across cultures and throughout the world - who routinely made things which were more carefully crafted and beautiful than they really needed to be. 

I feel both joy and a sort of reverence in being part of that creative continuum, which started at least 300,000 years ago. My work invites others to join me in those feelings.