Sally Davies talks with Angie Fremont
Angie is an artist who lives and works in New York City
Angie was born and raised in the wilds of south Florida, amid the rattle snakes and coyotes. In 1970 she drove to New York City in a green Volkswagon with no gas gauge.
"Patience and Love, 1" was selected for the 2024 NAEA Member Exhibition. This exhibit highlights the artistic talent of visual arts educators worldwide.
Angela shared this about being an artist as well as an art educator, "My work as an artist and art educator is intimately tied to each other. One seems to feed the other; my artwork is about mothers and children and the challenges that both face, separately and as family members.
Sal
Coyotes and snakes rarely, if ever, come to mind when I imagine South Florida. I think of beaches and Art Basel and decadence and rich people. I guess the world has changed since then.
Angie
Our neighbors were dairy and horse farmers. We grew mangos and avocados and sold them roadside, 2 for a quarter in a coffee can. I spent all my time outside, barefoot, up in the trees swinging from the roots of the giant banyans. My heroes were Tarzan and Jane. I built treehouses and created little worlds in the undergrowth. It felt completely unsupervised and in this environment my imagination freely developed.
Sal
What got you out of there and heading north in 1970?
Angie
I was 19. Time to see what was going on in the world.
Sal
Did you always know you were an artist? and unlike other people?
Angie
I always knew. When I was 12, I was sending off those matchbook covers that said “If you can draw this, you could have a future as an artist.” And you know where you sent those matchbook covers to? New York City! Well, there was a little space for age, and I put 12, so I never got an answer. But I knew I could draw that profile.
Sal
You are an artist of various mediums. I loved your small figurines a while ago, and now I see you are painting again.
Angie
My new paintings are about mothers and children, about the challenges that both face getting through it! It’s so damn hard being a mom, and a kid. No one really tells you how much patience and hurt, how much anger and confusion, and longing and frustration the days are filled with as a child and as a parent.
Sal
Having recently returned to painting myself, I can attest to how hard painting is. For me, It’s much harder to pull off a good painting, than it is to take a good photograph. I don’t think most people understand how f’ing hard it is to make a good painting.
Angie
I am constantly trying to improve my craft as a painter. It’s very hard to be a GOOD painter.
Sal
Tell me a bit about these new paintings.
Angie
My most recent paintings are full of color that is all around and in the figures. In the ground are ancestral spirits. They are supporting and whispering, “it’s alright, everything will be okay.” They are the ancient wisdom sources that are there for mothers and children. Children seem to be aware of them at a younger age. Sometimes I feel their presence in the wind, the rain, the trees.
Sal
Let me add that they are there for us all.
Sal
I think it was Chuck Close who said inspiration was for amateurs. Maybe. But I am inspired by so any things in this world. how about you?
Angie
Visits to the Met, which I consider my museum. The small cycladic figures are so stoic and powerful, the ancient Greek Boeotian clay figures from 500 bc are also very beautiful to me. My work is fundamentally based in drawing, so of course I love the work of Egon Schiele, Matisse, Mary Cassatt, Kathe Kollwitz and the great Finnish painter, Helene Schjerfbeck, and the brilliant painter Lucian Freud. And I can’t work without music playing in the studio, usually funk, Motown or R&B. Pretty loud.
Sal
Would you fancy a lunch date with any of the above?
Angie
I guess Kathe Kollwitz. She had so many experiences and stories and knew everyone! And mercy, she could DRAW!!
Sal
Whats on the horizon for you?
Angie
Very much looking forward to two workshops this summer, one at the Women’s Studio Workshop incorporating text and image in a bookmaking project about domestic violence. The other workshop is at Peters Valley Craftsmen Center in New Jersey where I will be taking a hollow core ceramic workshop with Bobby Scoggins which I am very excited about.
The other part of my practice is ceramics. My studio has a large kiln and I work in hand building sculpture and teach ceramics at a high school on Staten Island as well. Being with these young adults is very inspiring to me. Every minute I spend with them is good time spent.
Sal
The world feels like it’s on fire right now. How do you take care of yourself in these times?
Angie
Being active in the community in upstate New York where my studio is and where I spend most of my time. I try to give back to this community as an artist and show up at events and demonstrations. There is a healthcare crisis caused by privatization in our county that we are fighting right now!
Sal
I love you Angie, and I love your new paintings. Thanks for catching up here.
You can see more of Angie’s work
and follow her on instagram. and at her website.
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Sally Davies has exhibited in NYC for 35 years. Her work can be found in the Museum of the City of NY, The 9/11 Museum and others. She is the author of two books, New Yorkers and California Dreamers.
Sally’s photographs on Instagram Sally’s paintings on Instagram Sally’s website
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Beautiful work. Thanks for Sharing Sal.
Great artwork and interview . Thank you!