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Betsy’s Mazda
A Comment on Automotive Metamorphosis, or Recycling with Verve
by Betsy Perkins
Several years ago I bought an old car after my former old car gave up on me, and a couple of years ago, when the new old car wouldn’t go anymore, I gave it to a metal sculptor friend of mine. Al Frega and his teenage sons, Carl and Curt, put it on a trailer and took it home to their seven acres outside of town. They patched it up, cut up the body to be a working vehicle and used it to haul trees felled by hurricanes. The boys loved being able to drive it around their grounds, since they weren’t old enough to be able to drive on the roads yet. Then the Mazda finally quit for good.
Two months ago, Al told me they were going to have a show at a local gallery, and all the art would be made from the old Mazda. They had stripped the car down to its component parts and had started making art.
I went to the opening of the show, and I want to tell you that old car never looked so good! Here are a few of the pieces: a marvelous big robot about 5’ high with the body made from the flywheel and crankshaft, shoulders and arms from the front suspension, legs from rear trailer arms, very large feet made from the suspension support, head and neck from the drive shaft and the two side view mirrors as ears. Two glorious candlesticks 2’ and 2-1/2’ tall made from the axles and the disk brake caliper pistons. A splendid chalice about 8" high and 4" in diameter made from the fan belt pulley and parts from the water pump. A very proud clock standing about 2-1/2’ high made from the differential housing -- very heavy. A perfectly enormous praying mantis, at least 8’ long and 6’ high, made from the welded parts of the chassis. A foil made from the antennae, the oil pan filter and part of the steering gear as the handle, which is so alive and whippy in the hand you would think it could fly by itself. Oh, yes, and a towel rack, painted red, about 3’ x 4’ that would require a very substantial wall on which to hang it, made from the hub caps, sway bar, oil pan and maybe something else.
This is a fun show with wonderful, strong art showing a grand energetic joy of life and creativity.
One of my artist friends swears she’s going to get down on the ground and look underneath her car to see if she has any of these great art pieces! Another wants to know if Al would like an old Ford Aerostar, and Kay Robbins mourns not having kept her old MGB.
Linda Johnson Dougherty, regional Editor for Art Papers, a contemporary art magazine based in Atlanta, Georgia, says, "Alvin Frega creates anomalies -- elegant, poetic, romantic sculptures out of scavenged, industrial materials. In his hands, found objects -- car parts, machinery, weapons, gears, tires, plumbing valves; items that are usually cast off and discarded once they have outlived their original function -- are transformed into relics and artifacts for the twentieth century, fossils of the industrial age."
" ... Frega’s icon is the chalice; a form that he started using in 1985 and has returned to repeatedly over the past fifteen years. ... The chalice is not a neutral form; it is an elemental shape saturated with meaning and association; as an object of worship, a symbol of healing, an implement for celebration, and the legendary goal of a voyage, battle or quest for something higher."
Al Frega, 43, born in upstate New York, received his BA from SUNY Buffalo and his MFA from UNC Chapel Hill. He has completed three commissioned Artworks for State Buildings and has several outside public art sculptures in North Carolina. He has received awards and fellowships, and his work has appeared in over a hundred exhibitions and more than a dozen motion pictures and television shows.
Frega: "When you are in your twenties, new beginnings are gratuitous. At forty, however, starting fresh can seem like going backwards. ... It’s ridiculous [however] to believe that if you change direction you have wasted your life. Your work should be self-fulfilling, not merely a self-investment. If you’ve been plugging along for years and still are feeling empty, why not change direction?"
Frega currently lives in Castle Hayne, North Carolina (outside of Wilmington) with his author-wife Donnalee Frega, their two super sons Carl, 16, and Curt, 13, and their amazing little daughter, Emma, who is four. The whole Frega family is an asset to this community.
I, for one, can’t wait to see what the 21st century will bring in the way of Frega art.
Photos by Kay Robbins, story by Betsy Perkins, artwork by Al, Curt and Carl Frega. Used with Permission.