Fred Thomas 60"x48" The Universe And Me 2011 Mixed Media on Canvas Painting #2CFT

Fred Thomas painted this original  60"x 48" untitled mixed media on canvas painting. This painting is made of knotted ropes with shapes outlined in dark brown enclosing camouflage–like patterns of orange, yellow, brown, and blue with orange dots.

The artist said, "This painting is a semi-abstract composition in which I combine knotted rope with acrylic paint. The influence of the Saint Soleil art movement is evident through dots and organic shapes. I depict stylized sticklike human figures that appear lost in an extensive and overwhelming environment on this vast surface. It represents human beings’ existential anxiety in a simultaneously hospitable and frightening world."

"L'univers et moi- Ce tableau est une composition semi-abstraite dans laquelle je combine la corde nouée avec la peinture acrylique. L'influence du mouvement artistique de Saint Soleil est évidente ici avec l'utilisation de points et de formes organiques. Dans cette vaste surface, je représente des figures humaines stylisées ressemblant à des bâtons qui semblent être perdues dans un environnement immense et écrasant. Il s'agit en fait de la représentation de l'anxiété existentielle de l'être humain dans un monde qui semble à la fois hospitalier et effrayant."

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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