Teel Sale Remembered for Her Impact on Art and Education

Teel Sale (’74, ’76 M.F.A.), an artist, author and educator whose career spanned national and international stages, died Nov. 3, 2025, at age 92, in Ennis, Texas. Known for her curiosity, wit and fearless experimentation, Sale worked across drawing, painting, printmaking and performance art, leaving a lasting imprint on contemporary art practice and pedagogy.

Sale joined the University of North Texas faculty in 1975, teaching drawing, painting and Honors courses until 1989. During her tenure, she co-authored "Drawing: A Contemporary Approach" (1980) with colleague Claudia Betti. Groundbreaking in both scope and philosophy, the textbook reframes drawing as an emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual practice while foregrounding the work of contemporary artists across cultures. Widely adopted in the United States and abroad, the publication remains influential and is now in its sixth edition.

Born with an instinct for both art and storytelling, Sale paused her education to begin a family before returning to North Texas to complete two degrees in art. Her interdisciplinary studio practice was exhibited nationally and internationally, and in 2001, she received a Pouch Cove Foundation Grant in Drawing. Deeply engaged with the book arts, she served as art editor for Trilobite Press, founded by her husband, Richard “Rick” Sale, Ph.D., UNT Professor Emeritus of English. Her professional contributions also included book design for university presses, reviews for "Texas Books in Review," and visiting artist and lecturer appointments at colleges and universities nationwide.

In 2020, Sale donated an archive of more than 200 works on paper to the University of North Texas Libraries' Special Collections. Spanning nearly five decades, from 1972 to 2020, the Teel Sale Collection includes linocut and embossed prints, drawings, collages, artist books, sketches and research materials. A curated digital collection drawn from the archive ensures continued access for students, scholars and researchers.

In retirement, Sale continued to read, write and make art. She is survived by her husband, Richard Sale, and her sons, Steve (’76) and Tom (’90 M.F.A.). Her legacy endures through her artwork, her writing, her students and the many viewers who found insight, rigor and quiet humor in her work — a life propelled by imagination, inquiry and a belief in art’s power to shape how we see the world.