Teri passed away in Spokane with the wind storm on January 9th, 2024 following a long fight with COPD. She was born as Teressa Kay Raymond to Chet and Maxine Raymond on October 10th, 1942 in Medford Oregon. She was the eldest over her two brothers, Dale and Randy. As the eldest she became her dad’s deckhand fishing for salmon in Alaska at just 10 years old. This experience shaped her life as a tough unique woman. They eventually settled in Port Angeles where she graduated high school. 

She discovered her passion and talent for art early on winning $50 in a soap carving contest at 13 years old. She went on throughout her life to be a sculptor in ceramics from her beatnik days in Seattle selling plant pots honoring the shape of femininity at Pike Place Market in the 60’s to the ceramic masks she created with her trademark lace imprints honoring many cultures and philosophies she enjoyed learning about throughout her life. She often went by her chosen art name, Teri Taku-Tan with TTT marked on her ceramic pieces.

She had two marriages and three children. She worked as a draftsman in Seattle and lived on a houseboat on Lake Union as well as a large house in the Queen Anne neighborhood. She raised her children rurally on the Oregon coast when she joined the “back to the land” movement and later in Bandon Oregon where she was proud of her University of Black Sheep degree earned with her quirky group of artist friends.

She was a dedicated DIY’er before the internet with library books as her guide. She plumbed, did electrical, built homemade “house trucks” and always made spaces uniquely hers. She learned to tan hides (once a skunk even), sewed corduroy quilts for loved ones, canned, gardened and valued preserving traditional ways of doing things.

She is survived by her brother Randy and her three kids, Eric, Jon and Star as well as her grandchildren she loved and would do most anything for.

She lived in color unapologetically, usually rebelling some social norm. She loved a good story and can be remembered with her cup of coffee or cigarette, making art or asking you to hold a board as she sawed it. She probably already has her booth set up on “the other side” as she called it. 

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