Terry Braunstein’s work takes the form of photography, artist-made books, installation, video, sculpture and public art. A survey of her work was at the Long Beach Museum in 2015/16, and has been shown in museums and galleries nationally and internationally. It is included in numerous public and private collections, including the Getty Center, National Museum of American Art, Library of Congress, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Her awards include a COLA Grant (2017), a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship, Durfee Grant, and National Book Award from the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Braunstein has been awarded 15 public art commissions, notably a Los Angeles Metro Station, Navy Memorial, Long Beach Entryway, and 6 bus stations. She lives and works in Long Beach.

Terry Braunstein is, first and foremost, a collector, constantly culling images from books, magazines, and various types of ephemera, usually with no specific idea of how they might find their way into her artworks. Old magazines, encyclopedias, maps, dollhouse furniture and bric-a-brac found at flea markets, yard sales, and used book stores provide the raw materials that inspire and fuel Braunstein's work. The common thread has been a kind of visual archaeology, exploring the world through research and scientific observation and challenging the viewer to find meaning by delving deeply into her work. Lifted out of their habitual context and juxtaposed to form new narratives, the selected images travel across time, allowing viewers to contemplate the past, the present, as well as the nature of time itself. The resulting artwork is often autobiographical and addresses issues of daily life and personal memory, asking questions about the hidden forces that govern the universe and human history.

The work, Heart Man, is a mixed-media installation excerpted from a piece titled Time Bound which is about the choices one makes as one ages.