Gillian Frederick experiencing creative burst
Gillian Frederick keeps a journal illustrating her daily observations of the human condition.
There are few words in the journal; mostly it’s large drawings, including “Gossip,” of three figures with over-exaggerated mouths, and “Speaking Volumes,” of a woman seemingly caught in an emotional whirlwind whose mouth is an opening to a river of color.
Frederick finds inspiration everywhere.
“Things I draw or paint usually spring from something I thought of when I was driving in my car or on a run, or a song lyric or something a friend said to me, or some random thing I heard a stranger say in passing,” she said. “I draw and I paint about my life, and all its twists and turns.”
Her work is universal and easily decipherable like a smile or a finger up to the lips signifying “be quiet.” It is all something to which the viewer can relate regardless of the actual situation. For example, her piece “I Meant It” portrays a woman with her mouth taped over. Done in oil pastel, the piece includes a quote by a friend who said, “Sometimes we say things we don’t mean to say, but we still mean them.”
Frederick, 21, began her serious pursuit of artistic expression within the last year. “I’ve really had a creative burst,” she said.
And she is gaining momentum, adding more and more work to her collection, including her latest series of foxes. “Foxes are mischievous,” she said, “It’s sort of a metaphor for me going through different things.”
She has a fox mingling with animated chickens, a fox running on a path through a city and rolling hills, and one of a fox on a rooftop gazing out over a city where laundry hangs out to dry. Green pastures are seen in the distance. Is that where the fox would rather be?
Frederick grew up in Montana and moved to Colbert, where she graduated from Mt. Spokane High School. She went on to Western Washington University. “I couldn’t take art classes because it wasn’t my major,” she said.
Disappointed, Frederick realized that art was what she wanted to do. She married, returned to the Spokane area, and enrolled in Spokane Falls Community College to “figure out my future and chill out.” Much of her time is spent drawing and painting.
She works on a large easel that she won in an art competition. Her range expands from dreamy landscapes to whimsical images akin to fairy tales.
In the fall, she will begin classes at the University of Idaho in the fine arts program. “I want to go into teaching,” she said, “I’m not sure of my path but I’ve always been drawn to art.”
She is interested in illustrating children’s books and finding unique ways to communicate how she feels. “A lot of my art is about God, my relationship with God, dealing with sins, and so on,” she said, “It (doing art) keeps you quiet and gives you a place to think, which is hard to do in this society.”