La Luz de Jesus Gallery

Frieda Gossett has always been an artist to some degree. After a childhood of drawing and doodling, followed by an adolescence in junior high and high school art classes, unwittingly following Mark Ryden's youthful creative arc ("He went to my schools a year before me. Dammit, where are those year books?!"), Frieda operated as a self taught artist until the charade grew tiresome. In 2001 she began attending Art Center College of Design and became a "professional". 

Today she works primarily with leather, building objects not normally associated with the medium. Birds, kites and insects are among the subjects she represents. Their lighter than air, delicate natures run counter to rugged, hand-tooled leather better suited for boots and saddles. Frieda also does small watercolor portraits of authors and interesting strangers. 

"For BIRDS I have continued to build my leather aviary but with a twist: Famous Aircraft. My father was in the Air Force and I came within inches of joining myself. I avoided that horror show but have held on to my dad's passion for airplanes. (All while really hating to fly. Go figure.) I decided to combine birds and planes to mix up natural flight and man-made flying machines." –Frieda Gossett