My paintings have been influenced by a lifelong fascination, awe and reverence for the natural world. Michele Corriel, Art & Architecture, 2014 wrote "[Britt Freda’s paintings] ask us to travel not only the roads we see but the ones we’ve lost along the way.”  While my subjects are rooted in realism, the closer the viewer gets one will discover my surfaces are regularly imbedded with etched words, statistics, poems, maps or seedpods. The elements that are layered between patterns of color are usually circuitously referential of environmental elements (seed pods, petals, cellular structures...).

From afar we are practiced at not questioning what we see, but up close where wrinkles and freckles and the flecks of color in a person's iris are visible, so much more is revealed.  I want the same to be true with my paintings.   There is something intimate about getting closer, to a painting or to a person. In close proximity the subjects of my paintings begin to dis-solve (also read: to un-explain) becoming blocks of color and marred patterns which I hope nudges the mind to dissolve preconceived notions.

My paintings are about the play of puzzles and discovery, about learning and re-membering (also read: coming together). In that space where breath can be heard or felt there is more to see, to hear, to be touched by, to comprehend.  It is there that the world becomes more complex and layered and interesting and riddled with stories that unite us as complex living beings.  And the more pieces there are to play with!  Beauty is found in so many unexpected places, even in those scratched, worn, etched or marred chunks of color.  Up close the familiar begins to look foreign and the foreign, familiar. 

Look. 

Dis-cover. 

Learn.

Past paintings of bees, owls, the notion of home, our collective future--but mostly looking into the eyes of my children--led me to my current focus on environmental impact and endangered species. While the subject matter isn’t always comforting I hope that you are, in one hand, seduced by visual sumptuous-ness and beauty while simultaneously holding in the other hand the knowledge that we are indivisible from our natural environment, and ultimately, from each other.

Artist Statements

Harris Walz • Forward 2024

09/10/2024

copyright-free download for posters, yard signs, postcards, notecards, and invitations available now!
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Raven Brings the Light

07/24/2024

This new painting, RAVEN BRINGS THE LIGHT, will show at the 2024 National Museum of Wildlife Art Western Visions Art Show in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The exhibit is open September 7 - 29, 2024.   Tickets go on sale August 1, 2024 for the Patron Open Sale and Awards Event on Thursday, September 12!
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Interdependence

07/23/2024

INTERDEPENDENCE is that young orca spiraling under its mother’s shadow into the spears and shards of sun lines up into the crashing spray of a raucous pod simply, simply, simply... for joy.
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HOPE (a pandemic poem)

04/23/2020

video poem 
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Art is the seed of humanity.  Bee the change.

12/01/2019

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Environmental Impact and Renewable Energy

09/24/2018

I hope each of us asks this question often: what is environmental impact?  And what is my environmental impact? Sometimes, my subjects are endangered species and extinction. Sometimes they are about climate change. Sometimes I focus my gaze on bees or social (in)equality and education. And sometimes environmental impact is, intimately, about the landscapes of internal darkness, that which is hidden underneath: vulnerability, fragility, fear, trauma, uncertainty, loss, humanity, courage, connection and love—of place, of animals, of self, of people we care about.   Environmental impact is melting icecaps and hugging a tender-hearted, teary child.  Environmental impact is prioritizing the people you love with kisses and fat hugs and prioritizing voting and recycling and consuming conscientiously.  Environmental impact is renewable energy: the sun, wind and water.  ALSO RENEWABLE ENERGY is: love, laughter, inclusion, compassion and education. 
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COUR•AGE 

06/05/2018

As a contemporary painter focused on environmental impact, endangered species and social equality issues, I am interested in the social impact of art.  Art inspires, and cultivates innovation and science.  And, circuitously, science and innovation inspire art.  As we build our future it is essential that we design from a foundation where compassion, science, innovation and art intersect.  Why art? Our attraction to beauty is part of our humanity.  It connects us.  Beauty can restore dignity and hope.  Art has the power to unite.  When wielded well, art reaches inside, beyond words or explanations or cerebral data points. Inside, felt by the gut or the heart,beauty reaches beyond race or gender or socioeconomics or orientation or religion or politics.  From a visceral, emotional place, art inspires people to care. Only when people care, when they feel emotionally connected, are they compelled to question, to learn, to grow, to change, to take action. 
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Courage Statement

02/01/2018

This year I have been swirling in a thematic, conceptual exploration of cour•age: the age of heart.
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LOVE paintings

12/11/2017

“What if sex was holy and war was obscene.  And it wasn’t twisted, what a wonderful dream” – Alicia Keys, Holy War.  In a time of warring ideas, sexism, racism, fascism, ism, ism, ism… in a time of historical mass exodus, the ever present threat of nuclear war, the temperamental wrath of climate change and extensions I, like so many, wonder what the heck is the antidote, the ballast? When I talk or write about my paintings, from my lightly used soapbox for introverts, I fervently espouse that it is essential to compel a person to love something before they’ll risk what it takes to defend it. If you are familiar with my work, you know I’ve devoted many, many years (wearing: the Lorax superhero costume under my clothes) focusing on endangered species as well as threatened environments and beings. 
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The Bee for Patagonia and The Creative Action Network #voteourplanet campaign

09/22/2016

"Patagonia and the Creative Action Network aim to create a new activist collection of political protest posters to communicate Patagonia’s belief that our country’s economy, security and future are wholly dependent on a healthy environment and urging all of us to take action and vote to protect our planet. Born out of The Canary Project, CAN, and Patagonia’s Vote The Environment campaign of 2014, #voteourplanet is inviting artists & designers across the country to use their talents for our planet." - Creative Action Network read more to learn the why of the bee.
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The Whale for Patagonia and The Creative Action Network's #voteourplanet campaign

09/22/2016

"Patagonia and the Creative Action Network aim to create a new activist collection of political protest posters to communicate Patagonia’s belief that our country’s economy, security and future are wholly dependent on a healthy environment and urging all of us to take action and vote to protect our planet. Born out of The Canary Project, CAN, and Patagonia’s Vote The Environment campaign of 2014, #voteourplanet is inviting artists & designers across the country to use their talents for our planet." - Creative Action Network click to read more about the why of the whale image.
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Patagonia and Creative Action Network partner to create the #voteourplanet campaign

09/22/2016

"Patagonia and the Creative Action Network aim to create a new activist collection of political protest posters to communicate Patagonia’s belief that our country’s economy, security and future are wholly dependent on a healthy environment and urging all of us to take action and vote to protect our planet. Born out of The Canary Project, CAN, and Patagonia’s Vote The Environment campaign of 2014, #voteourplanet is inviting artists & designers across the country to use their talents for our planet." - Creative Action Network
READ MORE

Learn

05/26/2016

My paintings have been influenced by a lifelong fascination, awe and reverence for the natural world. Michele Corriel, Art & Architecture, 2014 wrote "[Britt Freda’s paintings] ask us to travel not only the roads we see but the ones we’ve lost along the way.”  While my subjects are rooted in realism, the closer the viewer gets one will discover my surfaces are regularly imbedded with etched words, statistics, poems, maps or seedpods. The elements that are layered between patterns of color are usually circuitously referential of environmental elements (seed pods, petals, cellular structures...).
READ MORE

Learn

5/26/2016

My paintings have been influenced by a lifelong fascination, awe and reverence for the natural world. Michele Corriel, Art & Architecture, 2014 wrote "[Britt Freda’s paintings] ask us to travel not only the roads we see but the ones we’ve lost along the way.”  While my subjects are rooted in realism, the closer the viewer gets one will discover my surfaces are regularly imbedded with etched words, statistics, poems, maps or seedpods. The elements that are layered between patterns of color are usually circuitously referential of environmental elements (seed pods, petals, cellular structures...).

From afar we are practiced at not questioning what we see, but up close where wrinkles and freckles and the flecks of color in a person's iris are visible, so much more is revealed.  I want the same to be true with my paintings.   There is something intimate about getting closer, to a painting or to a person. In close proximity the subjects of my paintings begin to dis-solve (also read: to un-explain) becoming blocks of color and marred patterns which I hope nudges the mind to dissolve preconceived notions.

My paintings are about the play of puzzles and discovery, about learning and re-membering (also read: coming together). In that space where breath can be heard or felt there is more to see, to hear, to be touched by, to comprehend.  It is there that the world becomes more complex and layered and interesting and riddled with stories that unite us as complex living beings.  And the more pieces there are to play with!  Beauty is found in so many unexpected places, even in those scratched, worn, etched or marred chunks of color.  Up close the familiar begins to look foreign and the foreign, familiar. 

Look. 

Dis-cover. 

Learn.

Past paintings of bees, owls, the notion of home, our collective future--but mostly looking into the eyes of my children--led me to my current focus on environmental impact and endangered species. While the subject matter isn’t always comforting I hope that you are, in one hand, seduced by visual sumptuous-ness and beauty while simultaneously holding in the other hand the knowledge that we are indivisible from our natural environment, and ultimately, from each other.

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