Fred is my egg tempera teacher. Before studying with him, when I first looked at his work my inherited cynicism caused a reluctance to enjoy it. I thought to myself "this is too pretty, too sweet." It did not last long and I soon recognized how inauthentic my response was to his work. Now I really appreciate his work because it is unapologetically decorative and precious but not in the contrived way in which I have seen decorative arts in shows which try to elevate decorative art to the level of fine art or obliterate the distinction all together. Work with this intention seems to have always bored me. The decorative nature of his work with it's gold leaf and patterns has an emotional impact not because of any allusions to traditional 14th century Italian painting process, but because of the same type of aesthetic wholesomeness that existed in that 14th century work. It is beautiful because it is beautiful and I think the fact that the figures in his work are not idealized gives it a human touch that transcends any contrived materialistic interpretation of the work. In other words the gold is there aesthetically not conceptually (at least that's the way I see it), and what really gets to me is that it is around figures which are not idealized. They look like someone you may know and all that gold leaf, and fine articulate technique simply creates a sort of transcendence to there appearance. They are portrayed through affection and this affection which is holy in the work of the Italian old masters, is just as holy around the women in his work. I love that it gives the real life every day human being a transcendence which grounds religious beauty to human experience outside of a religious context. If you look closely the imperfection and exposed red clay bole in the gold leaf furthers this marriage of holiness and imperfect life. Now I'm not saying that I love all his work, I do like a great deal of it, I'm just trying to say that I love the humanity it captures. And if you ever meet Fred you'd know that he possesses all the wholesomeness and humanity in his work. He's a great guy and I've really enjoyed his class
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