Torea Frey is a mixed-media collage artist based in Clackamas, Oregon. She’s been working with found papers, glue, and paint since the early 2000s, exploring the transformative potential of mundane materials. Her work has been shown in the US and abroad, including at the Bristol Art Museum and Kolkata’s Academy of Fine Arts, and has garnered awards from the Northwest Collage Society and the National Collage Society. It’s also been published in Collage Care: The Method, periodicals such as 1001 and Voicecatcher, and in publications from Borderline Press and Pile Press.
The creation of a macramé linkage of knots represents the interconnectedness of humanity fighting the virility of COVID-19, and the spent nanoseconds of love and lifetimes being disrespected by the untamed virus. The time of the pandemic isolation and separation from family and friends has left a sad legacy, but also the treasuring of the precious and fleeting nature of these relationships.
I have worked with nature and textile arts since my early childhood years.
I am a 28 year old member of the LGBTQIA+ community. I am married to my wife of five years. During COVID I became so overwhelmed with empathy fatigue it was like wading through mud. I felt like I was being hit on all sides by the chaos. From masking, to wildfires, to politics, to the death tolls rising, and protests in the street I was drowning under it all. It was, and still is, a terrifying time and I only found solace in my art, and my ability to do what I could for others.
Nací en Hermiston pero crecí en un pequeño pueblo al sur de Jalisco, México. Hija de migrantes y actualmente siendo una migrante yo también, empecé a vivir en el pueblo donde nací poco antes de que la pandemia comenzara. Empecé a venir aquí para ganar un poco de dinero mientras concluía mis estudios pero cuando la pandemia comenzó no pude volver a mi pais.
Si llegará a publicar mi obra la titularía: “Yo creí que el covid no me había afectado hasta que pensé detenidamente cuando me preguntaron”; porque eso fue lo que pasó, hice una reflexión de ese tipo para una clase y entonces me dí cuenta de lo que me pasó: no enfermé gravemente pero por el aislamiento y distancia de mi escuela y estudios (y otras cosas) perdí la confianza y habilidades sociales que necesitaba para desempeñarme profesionalmente; aún hoy sigo trabajando en ello.
I am a 40 year old disabled woman. I have painted my whole life but after I became disabled it became more important. Art has helped my release feelings. It is a way I can express my emotions in a healthy way.