Becky Frehse grew up in Illinois and the Northwoods of Wisconsin. She earned a BFA in painting and drawing at Arizona State University. She worked as a picture framer in New York and as an art conservator in Maine before coming to Washington to earn her M.F.A. in painting at Central Washington University. There she studied with the painters Cynthia Krieble and William Dunning. A teaching position at Pacific Lutheran University brought Becky to Tacoma where she has maintained a professional studio practice since 1986. Becky has won many awards and honors for her work and exhibits regularly in group shows, collaborations, and community arts projects. Her most recent solo show was Spacious Rambles at the Wagner House at Lakewold Gardens. Since retiring from teaching in the Art Department at the University of Puget Sound, Becky teaches privately at her studio in Tacoma.

My studio practice includes mixed media painting, artist books, assemblage sculpture, and installations. I explore a variety of materials and approaches to making things because I discover new meanings as I work and experiment. The process of developing an image or physical manifestation of an emotion or feeling is endlessly inspirting. I like the interplay between representation and abstraction as I work with visual language to find an expressive balance between subjective and objective experiences. Some of my work includes imagining how musical sound could be suggested within a painting by embedding a layer of musical staff lines within a composition. I paint large, acrylic paintings I call “tone poems” in this way as I combine the sensations of musical sound with imagery inspired mainly by my memories of landscapes and gardens. I am also passionate about oil painting on small pieces of unstretched canvas or paper. My dig through old travel sketchbooks and stamp collections are informing my compositions as I collage them with oil painting. The small-scale oil paintings feel more intimate, and where a viewer may find an unexpected treasures buried within a beautiful paint surface. Ultimately, in each piece, and in my practice as a whole, I strive to evoke a sense of beauty and of wonder.