Britt Freda

Britt has been designing, drawing and painting for as long as she has memory. She received a double degree with honors in fine art and writing from St. Lawrence University in New York. In addition, she studied painting, drawing and photography at Lorenzo de' Medici Institute of Art in Florence, Italy and by invitation for intensive residency study at La Cipressaia in Montagnana, Italy under internationally acclaimed South African artists Rose Shakinovsky and Claire Gavronsky. Her work can be found, in the US and internationally, in private collections, galleries, museum exhibitions and publications. She lives with her two children on a small island in the Puget Sound.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The Alchemy of Respair

It has come to my attention via my dear friend Amy and writer Shauna Ahern that the   currently “rare” and “obsolete” word respair is calling to be brought back into the cultural vernacular of our time.  I am joining the movement.  Respair, n. means “again” and “hope.” According to the OED, “perhaps fresh hope or recovery from despair.”  

In my life, 2020 was a year of many things, including silence.  My voice, written, spoken, public-facing went quiet.  It wasn’t intentional. It just happened.  While I was able to coax brushstrokes and paint into familiar dances, those dances were more private.  Intimately available only to those who beckoned them or showed-up with interested curiosity, outside, masked, in-person, 6 feet apart.  Narrative at a whisper, I let it be so.  Felt can be softer and more forgiving than spoken/written. 

The opposite of despair is respair.  Despair’s antonyms, hope and joy.  Alchemy is transforming that which is base—metals or perspectives—into gold. At their (base) essence the subjects of these paintings share two things.  One, they are natural inhabitants of and around the Pacific Northwest island we share.  Two, their existence is climate-threatened or endangered. While fragile, their (and our) future is not decided.  Yet, dear one, hard things are inevitable.  Do not turn your back.  Do not stay silent.    

The opposite of love is indifference.  It is in the hope of loving that the seemingly impossible becomes possible. Hope is the most precious element.  Respair is gold.