Tina Frugoli
tfrugoli@rocketmail.com
statement
• education • show record
My
paintings are based on snapshots of everyday moments. I photograph these moments
just as I see them. I don’t adjust the camera much to avoid or include details.
For example, I take pictures while driving. Sometimes the inside of my car
will be in the photo. The picture might include the rearview mirror, frame
of the windshield and whatever caught my eye outside—like a street or gas
station.
Initially
I translate these snapshots into loose line drawings accentuating unusual
composition and perspective. Enhancing and dramatizing characteristics of
the environment makes the picture exciting to me. I strengthen lines and shapes
that would normally fade out into the background. For example I love the lines
where walls meet the ceiling in a corner, or where something is poking in
or cut off by the edge of the frame. These elements really are there—but are
often disregarded by our minds. I think our expectations and how we value
certain forms determines what we see. Although my paintings are abstract,
enhancing these “background” elements makes them more realistic to me.
I
color in these line drawings using vibrant color fields. Bringing all the
shapes onto one plane unites the elements; giving objects, figures, and shadows
equal value. If there is a person in the painting I see that figure as simply
another part of the landscape.
I’m
mostly drawn to the aesthetics of a moment in time and space. I try to paint
things I see from the perspective in which I see—like the view of the freeway,
from my car, or my dad standing in his cluttered garage. These are not profound
moments, or visually special images—they are just snapshots of an instant
of time. I like to take a frozen moment and activate it—make it visually fun.
Some pictures may be more exciting or may have more dynamic compositions,
but to me any moment can be made visually stimulating.
education
| MA in Art, Painting | California State University Northridge | |
| BA in Studio Art, Sculpture | California State University Los Angeles |
|
2006 |
Moorpark College Art Gallery | Moorpark College, CA |
|
2005 |
Arts Towers | Downtown Los Angeles, CA |
| Virtual World Café | Agoura, CA | |
| 2003 | Pluck | California State University Channel Islands |
| 2002 | Cannibal Flower | Downtown Los Angeles, CA |
| Stick Up | Downtown Los Angeles, CA | |
| Calypso | Ojai, CA | |
| Ned’s | North Hollywood, CA | |
|
2000 |
Moorpark College Art Gallery | Moorpark College |
| 1999 | Ojai Art Walk | Ojai, CA |
| The Smell | North Hollywood, CA | |
| Outdoor Exhibition | California State University Northridge | |
| 1997 | Master Student Exhibition | California State University Northridge |
| 1995 |
Gallery of Contemporary Arts | Hotchkiss, CO |
| America Past and Presents | Basalt, CO | |
| 1994 | Pork Rinds | California State University Los Angeles |
| Free Food | California State University Los Angeles |