Terry Swafford’s 2015 oil painting Canal House depicts a light green home located in “Little Venice,” an area where the Detroit River canals cut through the city’s eastern neighborhoods.

The home is across a canal from what’s now Coriander Kitchen & Farm.

“To make that painting, I was situated on what has become the dining patio of [the restaurant],” said Swafford, who also does home renovation work in Detroit’s historic neighborhoods.

“At the time, it was a derelict platform for raising boats, and there was a regular gas station pump from the ‘80s. It had been a party store that lost its business when the adjacent trailer park was razed. The green house and rusted boat lift are still there as part of the scenery one can enjoy while eating really good food.”

Canal House is one of 18 paintings featured in Swafford’s latest exhibit, On Site: Paintings From Detroit’s East Side (2015-2025), at U-M’s North Campus Research Complex.

Running through April 24, the exhibit showcases a decade of Swafford’s work in Detroit and reflects years spent composing scenes from different urban communities.

Those scenes showcase a dynamic interplay between urban development and ecological restoration, revealing how cities evolve while reclaiming pieces of their history.

As Detroit’s communities continue to change, many of the scenes depicted in Swafford’s paintings are no longer visible today.

“I didn’t set out to chronicle anything, though as I watched my environment change around me, I recognize there is some documentary value in what I’ve chosen to paint,” he said. “The work isn’t subject-driven; I’m inspired by chance arrangements of forms, light, and color.”

I recently did an email interview with Swafford about his exhibit.

Q: How does your historic renovation work on Detroit’s east side inspire your art? 
A: The paintings are all based on the east side, where I reside, but my historic renovation work is mostly based in the city’s various historic districts. When I moved here, I imagined restoring houses in my neighborhood, but that has yet to materialize. 

The work I do for old homes is informed by my art training and practice. From designing homes, additions, outdoor structures, and custom fabrications to selecting a home’s color scheme, I handle the critical aspects of each project, and the ones I’ve done can easily be identified. It took a while for me to get established here. People had to see exactly what I had to offer in life and the qualities that make my work stand out.

We completed our first Tudor Revival home in 2018, and it’s begotten dozens since, to the point where we now corner the market. One such home was singled out by the state last year, and for that, I received the Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation. That house is located in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood, where we do a lot of work, [and] we have one in progress currently there.

I think doing this kind of work enhances my appreciation for older buildings, along with carefully considered city planning. I’m constantly thinking about creating long-term value. This applies to my painting. In college, I wondered what I would be interested in painting 20 or 30 years later. And while I’ve maintained a studio practice all these years, and even abandoned landscapes for a while, I always come back to it, and I keep discovering new things.

Q: Your latest exhibit at U-M reflects a decade of your work in Detroit. How do these pieces help depict the transformation and history of Detroit during that period?
A: In certain moments, the ordinary can become unusual or even beautiful. I’m constantly noting these moments and making arrangements when I’m out walking or driving between places. I return to these spots with my painting gear, situating myself onsite for several hours to quietly observe.

Some of the wildlife that has established itself in the absence of homes, buildings, and roads is quite rich and diverse. I’ve always been interested in the juxtaposition of orderly plans and nature’s pushback. As a builder and painter, I harbor a lot of critiques of how we build and develop. In both practices, I try to highlight the beauty that can be found in what we have.

Q: Your paintings are often created on location in a single session. How does that method of creation challenge you as an artist?
A: I actually started the practice of working onsite in college. During my year abroad, I would hop on trains and paint the Italian countryside from my school based in Rome, though most of my work was done within walking distance of it. I think the place I’m working in has the most effect on what subjects are and what they look like. My work in Chicago looked urban and was mostly for the built environment. Detroit has brought together the things I picked up in previous locations, including some more pastoral landscapes.

For example, I’m less dependent now on the sort of tight geometry I leaned on for many years to compose my paintings. As a result, the paint handling is a lot looser and more fluid. Making work onsite is invigorating because I have a very limited window in which to [create] a painting. Weather can change, mowers can invade unannounced, someone might decide to move part of my subject matter, insects, animals, onlookers, or property owners might hassle me. I’ve even had the police called on me more than a few times, though never in Detroit. What it boils down to is I know things could change any minute, and I have to work efficiently.

Q: Why did you decide to feature Fisher Mansion in one of your paintings?
A: That particular Fisher Mansion is featured in several paintings I’ve made over the years. There are many other Fisher mansions throughout the city, though this is the only one in Jefferson-Chalmers. For a while, the strip of land running west of Lennox and bordering a canal, and the river running to the south, was my favorite place to paint. It offered a quiet place near the water and reclaimed wild.

Deserted Foundation and Stratocumulus I were also from this area. The Spanish-style mansion with its peachy stucco and red-tile roof provided some color and shape to contrast the patchy gravel and wild grasses in the foreground. To answer your question, while I have worked on at least two other Fisher mansions, I have not worked on this one.

Q: What other piece would you like to highlight for the exhibit? What do you hope people take away from that piece and the exhibit overall?
A: Engle Street Suite and Schiller Passage are the most recent ones in this group. With Engle Street Suite, I had fun cutting up the geometric scene with wild-growth foundation trees. Schiller Passage was an unlikely composition for me to attempt, in that the challenge was what I found interesting. I simply hope people take the time and look for themselves with their own eyes. I’m framing things I find interesting from my own environment, and maybe it’ll inspire some to look at some of these subjects in a new light.

Lori Stratton is a library technician, writer for Pulp, and writer and editor of strattonsetlist.com.

“Onsite: Paintings From Detroit’s East Side (2015-2025)” runs through April 24 at U-M’s North Campus Research Complex, 2800 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor. The exhibit is located in the Connection Gallery, or the tunnel of Building 18. Terry Swafford's exhibit is running concurrently with Lynn Galbreath's exhibit, "Twenty-Two Paintings From the Series 'Telegraph,' 'Working Hard for a Living,' and 'Storyboard,'" which is located in the Rotunda Gallery.