Britt Freda
2013 Artist
2013 Artwork Coming Soon
About the Artist
Britt Freda paints conceptual questions in layered wings of pollinating insects, dissolving animals, or abstract seeds. The subjects of Freda's paintings are the focal point for her questions about humanity and our relationship to nature. She holds degrees in fine art and writing from St. Lawrence University. She also studied at Lorenzo de' Medici Institute of Art in Florence, Italy, under South African artists Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky. Born and raised in the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico, Freda currently lives on Vashon Island, Washington. Her work is in galleries in Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Denver, Colorado; Park City, Utah; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Artist Questions
What artist inspires you? Why?
To me the obvious historic influence is Gustav Klimt and the German abstract expressionists. But in the world of current heroins I feel a strong affinity to Jenny Saville's luscious painting style paired with her disorienting, provocative subject matter. And in my every day, in the deeper layers, I am perpetually inspired by my contemporaries: the illusive stories told in Janet Miller's layers of semi-transparent bees wax; Jylian Gustlin's bold, smart, figures; Tracy Taylor Grubbs' illusive impermanence. I am courted by depth of layers and stories revealed between the covers of paint and canvas.
How do you come up with an idea for a new piece of artwork?
Ideas/subjects find me. Recently, one early morning in the dark, I came upon a stunningly beautiful, delicately light, large, dead owl. Owls, historic owl lore, mythology, and iconography have been very prominent in my most recent work. Once they find me then I start uncovering layers to find out why. It is a curiously seductive part of my discovery, research process around a subject.
Where is the most inspirational place you've visited lately?
It is a tie between: 1. a disorganized pile of my children's (5 and 7 years old) weird, funny, whimsical, creepy, random drawings in my studio and 2. the speckled beach beyond the deck of my current little house when the spring sunshine came out for a bit and illuminated the hidden treasures that, at high tide, live beneath the sea. All that revealed by the ever changing glistening surface of the sea quilted by the patchwork of broken sunlight.
Past Artwork (Since 2012)
