Fred Thomas 60"x48" Facing The Moon II 2011 Mixed Media on Canvas #4CFT

This original Haitian painting by Fred Thomas is an untitled 48"x 60" mixed media on canvas. This is a painting with a dark red background holding various lines and symbols-like shapes and signs of red, white, and blue colors, depicting a bluish human-like figure facing to the right with a hand pointing toward a light orange shape intersecting with a more petite human figure of a man with arms forming a circle over his head. At the man’s feet floats a fish-like creature. The artist said: "This painting is about my fascination with the moon. At first, it seems to have only mystical, decorative, and poetic values until one learns its role in the earth's rotation, the tides' movement, etc. Most Haitian peasants follow its phases to decide when to plant their crops for the best results. The vèvè designs inspire the grids all over the painting, but I wanted something more modern, resulting in intersecting thick black lines and suggesting an integrated electronic circuit. The abstract composition is about mankind facing the moon with fascination and apprehension.  

Face à la Lune

Ce tableau traite de ma fascination pour la Lune. Au début, elle semble n'avoir que des valeurs mystiques, décoratives et poétiques, jusqu'à ce que l'on comprenne le rôle qu'elle joue dans la rotation de la Terre, le mouvement des marées, etc. La plupart des paysans haïtiens suivent ses phases pour décider quand planter leurs semences afin d'obtenir de meilleurs résultats. Les grilles qui parsèment le tableau s'inspirent des motifs vèvè, mais je voulais quelque chose de plus moderne, ce qui s'est traduit par des lignes noires épaisses qui s'entrecroisent perpendiculairement et qui suggèrent un circuit électronique intégré. La composition abstraite suggère que l'humanité fait face à la lune avec à la fois fascination et appréhension."

Fred Thomas was born in Fort-Liberté, Haiti, and grew up in Cap-Haitien in 1956. He started to draw at an early age, reproducing sketches created by his father. Soon, Fred began to polish these drawings and develop his own, denoting his precocious creativity and draftsmanship. In sixth grade, he was already a freelance commercial artist designing seasonal greeting cards, promotional posters, and banners. For many years after that, throughout middle and high school (at College Notre Dame), he was elected the director of the school periodical publication "Regard and Dialogue," which Fred tremendously impacted with his editorials and original illustrations. Upon moving to Port-au-Prince after high school, Fred took private drawing, painting, and ceramics lessons at Le Centre d'Art ( The Art Center) and Le Centre the Ceramic (The Ceramic Center). Fred was mainly interested in papier mâche, to make masks betraying an apparent African influence. He continued to pursue his strong interest in the visual arts when he moved abroad, first to Canada, then to the United States, and later to Germany while serving in the American army. His peregrination allowed him to visit numerous prestigious art galleries and museums. Upon residing in Miami, Fred enrolled in the Art Education Program at Miami Dade College. Since then, Fred's artistic career began. He has participated in countless art exhibitions throughout the United States, and his works belong to numerous prestigious collections worldwide. In an interview with the Miami Herald on November 11, 1990, Fred admitted wanting his artwork to reflect his Haitian background and experiences abroad. Subsequently, Fred's subjects, style, and technique vary from abstraction to surrealism and color field works where collage and heavy impasto-type texture have become his trademark. Fred’s studies have culminated with a BA in Religion and Philosophy and a master’s degree in psychology (School Guidance Counseling).

Nevertheless, art has remained the passion of his life.  Since 2009, he has devoted himself entirely to promoting his artistic career and has become a prolific artist and noted art curator. Fred lives in Miami, and when he is not painting, working on craft projects, or curating art exhibitions, he enjoys spending time with his family or writing poetry, short stories, and art criticism. Lately, Fred has created minimalist paintings using knotted ropes and recycled items, which, he says, give his creations a human and universal dimension by emphasizing the telluric effects.   His art, he argues, is about the human experience on earth, epitomized by our daily struggle to survive, to affirm our identity, and also about our existentialist anguish, estrangement, loneliness, and despair, along with our hopes, dreams, and thirst for happiness. Fred co-wrote a seminal art book with Christian Nicolas (Kristo), "There and Beyond: The Works of Sixteen Haitian Artists Living in Florida. Fred was the illustrator of the Silver ADDY award-winning (2009) promotional billboard posters for Haiti’s wireless communications provider “Voila.”  The design was created by the team of the well-known Seattle-based Advertisement Agency, Garrigan Lyman.

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