I went and studied graphic design, because it seemed to me that advertising is more honest – the image actually has a function. But once I started on that, I realized that was really boring.
BRIAN FROUDI went and studied graphic design, because it seemed to me that advertising is more honest – the image actually has a function. But once I started on that, I realized that was really boring.
BRIAN FROUDOnce you step onto the fairy path, it’s almost like there’s no way off. You have to keep going.
BRIAN FROUDI paint the spirit and soul of what I see.
BRIAN FROUDSpirits were seen to be very much part of the everyday world, and you were accosted by spirits all the time. It’s only really quite recently that we’ve relegated the fantastic as being just imagination and not real and having no purpose.
BRIAN FROUDThey come when we are half-asleep. They come at moments when we least expect them; when our rational mind balances with the fluid irrational.
BRIAN FROUDRemember, as each man and woman is a microcosm reflecting the larger natural world, so healing of the self is also a healing for the world. As above, so below.
BRIAN FROUDI had a job as an illustrator, and I wanted to change the direction of my work. I moved to the country, and immediately I started to paint fairies and trolls.
BRIAN FROUDArt always used to involve spirit. Painters painted spirit. They painted by commission things to go into churches, and that was painting spirit. Or they would paint people of wealth, and they would try to show how they had power, and again, this is sort of spirit.
BRIAN FROUDMy art’s not safe, I don’t want it to be safe, it’s not meant to be safe, its controversial, it takes you into deep areas, it’s a journey, its starts off in safe areas but it gets into deep waters.
BRIAN FROUDIn college, I became interested in folk tales and fairy tales. Gradually I became more and more interested in the underlying meaning of it all and the possibility of the reality of real fairies.
BRIAN FROUDIn the 20th century, artists did a great disservice to fairies. They painted fairies in a way that was shallow and trite. So when people see my stuff, they suddenly realize the depth of fairies.
BRIAN FROUDI always believed that the picture itself should tell the story.
BRIAN FROUDWe almost need another word for fairy, that’s the thing. Once people get to see what fairies’ real power is, then they understand.
BRIAN FROUDFaeries are seen through the heart, not through the eyes. Remember that faeries inhabit the interior of the earth and the interior of all things, so look, in the first place, in the interior of yourself.
BRIAN FROUDIt seems to me that art has lost its connection to spirit.
BRIAN FROUDYou do not see fairies through the eyes, you see them through the heart and that took me a long time to learn because I was always trying to see them through my eyes.
BRIAN FROUD