S.L.A.M. F.A.D. #56 Hyper Focused Artist-Gallery Owner Lori Frary: Working to reDefine Art
Lori Frary, artist and gallery owner discusses with S.L.A.M. her passion for creating art, the wisdom and vision behind her Frary Gallery in Sarasota Florida, and a few tips for artists wanting to work with galleries.
I'm not Bart Simpson but I play him on TV © Lori Frary
S.L.A.M.: Let’s talk first about your art. When did you start this practice? Is this something you’ve always done, since childhood or was there a catalyst event that defined you as an artist? Or something else all together?
FRARY: I have been an artist from birth. I am totally a creative being. I started out with a crayon in both hands and haven’t stopped. I even use them in some of my current work. When my second grade teacher taped my Halloween picture on the door with a star…my art career was defined! The creative process is like one of my senses. I see everything in my own ironic way and express myself with art as easily as words.
S.L.A.M.: When looking at your work, one sees that you paint and create assemblage/combine work. Often marrying both in a single piece. Some artists find a groove and stick with it and others evolve through various media and processes. How do you see yourself and the work you produce?
FRARY: I have a very broad spectrum of knowledge about styles, materials and mediums. I use many mediums in most of my work. I will try anything and usually do several pieces in a series and then just paint sometimes. I have been told that an artist needs to adopt a style by which they can be recognized. What a load of crap that is. If an artist can’t be identified by their style, then they don’t have one. But after spending some time talking to the artist, one can see the bridge from one piece to the next. Just ask Picasso’s ghost. I think he’s still laughing at that assumption.
S.L.A.M.: Regarding your assemblage work, where do you find your objects and ephemera? Is there a specific flavor or type of object you are looking for?
FRARY: I use what I find and make it speak for itself. People bring me all sorts of junk…I often come back to the studio and find a pile of stuff like TV’s, papers and wire and anything else my friends have seen me use before. I’ve done the Dumpster dive many times and pick up stuff along the curb on trash day now and then. I like shapes of all kinds and like to re-purpose items to represent something else. I never buy anything…there’s an abundance of junk. I rarely use plastics though, I prefer metal and wood.
S.L.A.M.: When creating an assemblage piece, do you start with a particular idea or story? Or do you allow the objects you collect and find to define the piece for you?
FRARY: I usually start with one cool thing and build on that. It can be anything…a metal thing or a scrap of sheet music and I never get bogged down on a theme. That part evolves and some sense of sarcasm or irony will drive the work. When I get what’s happening with the evolution of the work, sometimes I laugh out loud at where my sense of irony came through. That’s the bridge I mentioned earlier. My intention is make you smile when you see the piece and read the title. The inner child should see shades of Captain Nemo or a Dr. Seuss contraption. There is also some nostalgia for the past and simpler times. Like that.
© Lori Frary
S.L.A.M.: Speaking of telling stories, a title of a work often reveals much about how one might choose to view the piece. Your titles tend to be great fun and often provide a sort of zen clarity to the overall experience of the work. Is this intentional? What comes first, the title or the piece?
FRARY: The titles are as much a part of the work as the visual structure. I will never produce something that goes untitled. In my opinion, a work is unfinished until it has a name. I’m a stickler for titles. Would a writer call their novel “untitled”? How about a composer? I don’t allow any untitled work in my gallery…mine or the other artists.
It’s rude or arrogant…or ambivalent at least. The artist shouldn’t leave that to the whim of the buyer. And the buyer wants the connection to the artists thoughts on what they think it means. Abstract art especially.
S.L.A.M.: On the Frary Gallery website, it states that the gallery was born from the fact that you simply can’t stop making art. What triggers this energy in you? What factors motivate you to create?
FRARY: I am 100% creative…that’s it. I have world class ADD and it is the way I cope with my brain wiring. If I go very long without making something art related I get pretty testy. When I’m working on art I go into what is called a hyperfocus. All else is tuned out. It is intense and soothing at the same time. It is my favorite state of mind and being. The biggest problem I encounter is coming out of it abruptly and not being able to go back. The art will suffer for it and I have to step away and come back to it. It’s tough to pick up the thread or state of mind I was in when I have snapped out.
Sometimes I can’t go back there and the piece then changes it’s focus and the irony is lost and turns into something else…or goes on the junk pile to be hacked up and used on another piece. It all works out in the end. But I pity the poor fool who interrupted me.
Camaro Parking Only © Lori Frary
S.L.A.M.: Two phrases are aligned with the Frary Gallery. Real art for real people and redeFine Art. Would you tell us more about both of these concepts? How do you define real art for real people? And how are you “redeFining art?”
FRARY: “Real art for real people” was the first slogan I used. I was looking for collectors of emerging and visionary artists. It was too vague and didn’t fly. I then coined the redeFineArt concept to better focus on the fact that this is a fine art gallery and that we hope to redefine what fine art is with respect to contemporary fine art. I want to take the stuffiness factor out of the myth that only the wealthy have access to great art. The sophisticated buyer comes in all wallet sizes.
S.L.A.M.: Some models of art galleries are based on membership, some are more conventional in that they may formally represent an artist, some are non-profit. What type of model is Frary Gallery?
FRARY: Frary Gallery is traditional in that the artists I represent have put their entire career building in my hands. I chose artists that are solely artists and aren’t interested in trying to sell themselves. If they don’t make it in my gallery, they are free to try another, but they so far trust me to build them a following so they are free to work on art only. Historically, most artists are not good at selling themselves.
S.L.A.M.: What are the benefits of owning a gallery? And what are some of the pitfalls, if any?
FRARY: The benefits are huge. But only if you like people and artists. I don’t have the typical artist’s mentality. I like to entertain people and I love all the quirky artists personalities because I am one. I can speak to them on their level and explain things about how the gallery has to work to succeed. I have only had the gallery for 1 year and have learned a lot quickly. The downside for me is I don’t have much time left to make art myself and that gets me frustrated. Once I get it stable financially, I can go back to making art again and all will be well with my world.
Club Cherry © Lori Frary
S.L.A.M.: How do you select the artists? What sort of process do they go through to become a Frary Gallery Artist?
FRARY: I have never done a call to artists. From the beginning, the artists came to me because they heard I was doing something different. I didn’t want mainstream artists. So as they found me, I found them. I ask them to come see me and bring me a few pieces. If they have something that sets them apart, I try them out with a few pieces at first and then put them in a group show. I make them co-market themselves by getting them to email their friends and past buyers to come. If there is no interest they don’t make the cut for me to spend my energy on them…or my wall space. I give them a try-out, but they gotta want it pretty bad to make me or them any money over the long haul. That’s what makes you an artist…you have to prove you’re an artist…in my opinion.
S.L.A.M.: What sort of clientele does the gallery have?
FRARY: My gallery is in the bohemian part of downtown in a converted theater. I don’t have much walk-in traffic. People who visit the gallery either come there as a destination or find it by accident. Sarasota has a tourist driven economy and is also a second home mecca for the wealthy and the creative class. Most of my clients are from the northeast and large metropolitan cities. They are looking for something unique, not mainstream. A lot of my sales are shipped to NYC and Chicago or Boston or Atlanta.
S.L.A.M.: Are you seeking new work/artists? In what areas or styles of work?
FRARY: I am always willing to look at anything different than what I have. I don’t believe in saying “we’re not accepting any new artists at this time” because I could miss out on a discovery and I would certainly never forgive myself for missing the next Basquiat or Thiebaud.
S.L.A.M.: What advice can you give the SLAM artists in regards to approaching a gallery?
FRARY: Boy Scouts motto: Be prepared. Making art is only part of being an artist today. The gallery needs you to help them help you. Have a bio and artists statement with multiple copies. Have a disk with photos of your work. Have professional photos of your work ready and in a portfolio to leave at the gallery. Make sure your work is titled and signed and clearly marked on the back or somewhere. Have all your info ready such as inventory and email and contact and pricing. In other words, be professional. If you make the gallery owners job easier, that goes a long way.
S.L.A.M.: What’s next for you as an artist, and for the gallery?
FRARY: Next step for me as an artist is to brand myself as an artist. FraryBrand. I’m working on getting in other galleries myself…and then I’m going to become an International Art Star. I like to think big, see? Frary Gallery will grow to multiple locations as well. I’ll be looking for another location by early 2012. Hopefully by then I’ll have students working with me making FraryBrand conceptual artworks. That’s how I intend to redeFineArt!
S.L.A.M.: Where can people go to learn more about you and the gallery?
On the SLAM network
www.frarygallery.com
http://www.facebook.com/frary.gallery?ref=ts
http://sarasota.anythingarts.com/profile/LoriFrary
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