Addie Frymoyer is seventeen and in her Senior year at Gunnison High School (GHS). She’s an artist who mainly works representationally with oil paints and charcoal. Addie has been drawing since kindergarten but began to get really serious about her art around sophomore year when she was inspired by her uncle, who’s a professional artist. 

“One time we were visiting and he took me to his warehouse where he runs his business, I got to see his office and I remember that he had so many paintings hung up and drawings laid out everywhere. I remember thinking I wanted an art studio just like that.” Addie remembers. 

To begin an art piece, Addie looks at photographs she took and tries to find one that inspires her. If that doesn’t work, she looks at other artists’ work on gallery sites and tries to find what story she wants to tell through her piece. Once she has the general idea of the piece she wants to make, she goes on to kind of ‘map’ out the piece, like a blueprint. She says that oftentimes this beginning stage of making her art is the hardest because she always hates how it looks, so she’s forced herself to learn how to trust the process and keep going. While creating a piece, Addie will spend up to twenty hours of time and effort on her art.

Once the piece is finished Addie gets to hang it up and show it off. Addie expressed that while hanging it up feels pretty good, it isn’t the real reward for her. To her, the real reward is seeing how it makes people feel, how it inspires them. The reward is seeing her art hanging in the halls of Gunnison High School putting smiles on people’s faces as they walk by on their way to class. 

Addie said, “It’s the best part because it inspires others to create art and because the world needs more art.”

Her most recent piece of artwork is an oil painting from two weeks ago called “Reach”, which took her about seven hours. Some of her other favorite pieces are, “I Remember You In The Sun” which is a drawing of her and her brother when they were little, and a painting of her Converse that’s called “You & Me.” “Easter Sunday” is a painting of Addie when she was little, and finally an observational study of the Palisades, and it’s titled, “Palisades.”

Addie does plan on going to college, she has applied to a few art schools to major in fine arts and is looking at studying architecture as well. Though she hasn’t committed to a specific path quite yet, she says her dream job is to one day be an art director. Another one of Addie’s goals is to start selling her art so people other than students at Gunnison High School and her family can enjoy it. 

If you would like to purchase Addie’s art or commission a piece, DM her at 4ddi3art on Instagram.