Biography
GINGER FREDERICK ~ ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
www.gingerfrederick.com
I am a working artist and a gallery owner of Frederick Galleries. My background in art begins in childhood. My father is an Art Dealer / Collector of 18th, 19th, and 20th Century art and ran our Art Gallery. As a child I often sketched many genre scenes on my own, capturing moments of my mother ironing and my father returning home from work with his briefcase. I used to draw girls running and jumping rope with their braided pigtails and ribbons. I drew images of interior scenes and created stories and books with my own drawings displayed in them. I intuitively knew artistic concepts such as background, foreground, movement, depth, dimension and perspective, before ever taking any real professional art classes.
I was always rewarded with “A’s” in art classes. I was told frequently by teachers, parents, friends and art teachers that I was very creative and talented. When I was five, I remember looking at a Da Vinci Mona Lisa copy hanging in our home and instinctively knowing that I too was an artist.
During college I majored in art and studied art history. I spent one year abroad in Florence, Italy studying art. I’m blessed to have been able to enjoy such a wonderful and memorable experience. I learned so much about art, culture and the Italian language. I even spent some time in the Tuscan countryside picking grapes and olives for landowners. I showed my artwork at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.
After I spent three years in New York City studying drawing and painting at the Art Students League of N.Y., with renowned artist/teacher David Leffel, I returned to my roots in Milwaukee, WI. While in New York I exhibited my artwork at the Phyliss Harriman Gallery and sold paintings. I studied portrait drawing with Nelson Shanks. At the league I won the Joseph Hirsch Merit Scholarship Award.
I really love drawing and painting and I paint rather quickly. My typical approach to painting is impressionism. I have done other styles, as well, to learn different techniques and mediums, such as oil, waterbased oil, acrylic, pastel and watercolor. I recently picked up gouache. Sometimes I paint abstractly but most often I paint representational. The subject matter of naturalism that I portray involves still life, landscape and portraits.
Some of my paintings are bold with intensity of color, while others have a more old world traditional museum quality. I often work with different ways of painting. For example, some abstract paintings I worked on drip paintings creating layers of paint and developing depth. The paint is luscious and I become passionate about painting. Other abstract pieces have bold strokes as well. I looked to Jackson Pollack for inspiration.
I’ve done grisaille paintings and laid layers of color glazing over the monochromatic underpainting as in the Renaissance period. I would use a light source to create chiaroscuro for light and shadow effects. My inspiration came from Vermeer.
Other paintings are from direct painting similar to the Impressionist style. For other contemporary paintings I’d use very large brushes or palette knife effects. I became inspired by Diebenkorn and the Impressionists.
When I paint I sometimes look for warm colors next to cool colors. Most of the time I lay down a wash of burnt sienna first to cover the white canvas. However, at times, I use other colors for the underpainting. I love the feeling of euphoria and timelessness I get from devoting hours to painting. I read Rollo May’s book, “The Courage to Create”. In his book he explains the emotion and joy one feels when in the process of creating art. And painting is exhilarating and liberating for me.
As an Art Psychotherapist, I have worked with clients of all ages and various diagnoses. For example, clients would create images of “How they feel”, “How they want to feel”, and “How they achieve their goals”. It is a very rewarding experience to see people strive for and meet their goals. Also, through the years, I have done a lot of volunteer work for many agencies.
In the past I have performed on television commercials and was an extra in a number of major movie productions in Chicago such as “Nothing In Common” and “The Mary Show”. I was on ten television commercials speaking parts for Manpower Inc. International, which were nationwide. I modeled print work for publications and magazines and spoke on radio commercials for radio stations in Chicago. I was on the cover of publications such as Dean Foods Annual Report, Medical Publications and Chicago O'Hare Airport Brochure.
I am also an Opera Singer. I currently sing with the da Corneto Opera Company in Chicago, IL. We will be performing the Opera, “Aida”. I studied voice in New York City with Michael Mitchell and currently in Milwaukee with both Katja Phillabaum and Victoria Benson. I have learned to sing in Italian, French, German, Latin, Spanish, and Russian.
In the past I have sung with Music By The Lake in the productions of “The Student Prince” and “A New Moon”. I was also a supernumerary in the Florentine Opera Company performing “Aida” and “Il Trovatore”. Previously I have sung with the Bel Canto Chorus at the Pabst Theater and "The Magic Flute" with Carroll University Summer Opera Theater. Also I sang in The International Festival of Classical Music in Spoleto, Italy and The St. Peters Church in the Vatican, Rome, Italy.
