FRITHA STRAND

Born 1984, Salt Lake City, Utah

Fritha Strand (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and poet who relocated from Whidbey Island, WA (Snohomish) to Brooklyn, NY (Lenape). Her paintings have been shown throughout the US and the Czech Republic; have appeared on album covers, journals, and books. Most recently, her poetry was published in the Brooklyn-based journal, No, Dear.

“I am curious about the sensory fields of sky, land, and water. They can provide sensualities of space through brushwork, color, and composition; through line and tone, shape is created, much like the body of a lover. 

At times, I have intentionally left ends unfinished as a visual depiction of the lack of closure throughout life, especially when relationships change or end – terrains within themselves. If landscape paintings can suggest the body (by body, I mean mass of all kinds), then poetry can be the breath, each assisting the other to ultimately allow grief. 

Acrylic, spray paint, and chalk pastels are the media I use, typically on canvas or board. I like to give the material and media some control, embracing mess-ups or rash decisions in an attempt to discover the painting. My work is not meant to look real, or abstract, but in between. 

I hope you will open yourself, go within, to the edges of what could be, simultaneously breathing deeply.”