{"id":17039,"date":"2019-10-31T17:14:21","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T21:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=17039"},"modified":"2020-10-16T12:28:02","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T16:28:02","slug":"ten-most-gabriel-frey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/ten-most-gabriel-frey\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Most: Gabriel Frey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; width: 100%; height: 450px;\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23d2d2d2&amp;backgroundColorFullscreen=%23d2d2d2&amp;d=nov19_flipbook_final&amp;hideIssuuLogo=true&amp;pageNumber=54&amp;u=portlandmagazine\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nNovember 2019<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"p1\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">10.\u00a0<b>Dream Leader<\/b><\/span><\/h1>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThat\u2019s not how you do it, but that\u2019s how I do it.\u201d\u00a0<strong>\u2014Gabriel Frey<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>By Diane Hudson<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-16875\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_10-Gabriel-300x231.jpg\" alt=\"nov19_10Most _10 Gabriel\" width=\"300\" height=\"231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_10-Gabriel-300x231.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_10-Gabriel-200x154.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_10-Gabriel-455x350.jpg 455w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/nov19_10Most-_10-Gabriel.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\u201cI<\/span><span class=\"s1\">sn\u2019t there an easier way?\u201d It\u2019s a question\u00a0<strong>Gabriel Frey<\/strong>, twelfth generation Passamaquoddy artist, is frequently asked. \u201cThey are well-meaning, but there are no shortcuts to doing what I do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI use\u00a0<strong>black ash<\/strong>\u00a0for my baskets. I cut down a basket-quality tree\u2014straight, with little-to-no branches\u2014and carry the log on my shoulder out of the woods. To get the raw material, I pound the log to fracture the fiber within the growth ring. I have to strike every square inch of the tree, all by hand. Once they\u2019ve been removed from the tree, I further refine the individual growth rings by splitting and gauging them to the desired thickness and width.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWhat I do has been done for thousands of years.\u201d Black ash is so closely tied to Frey\u2019s culture, it features centrally in the creation story of the\u00a0<strong>Wabanaki<\/strong>\u00a0people. \u201c<strong>Glooskap<\/strong>\u00a0is a mythical figure, kind of a trickster guy. Legend has it he shot his arrows into the heart of the ash tree. When it split open, our people were created.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Frey\u2019s talents stretch beyond basketry. \u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of oil paintings and a few charcoal sketches. I\u2019m inspired to use my artistic voice to raise the profile of Maine\u2019s indigenous population, which has been marginalized for so long. I hope to add to our story and, in doing so, enrich Maine culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">In early 2019, Frey, 39, won the prestigious\u00a0<strong>United States Artists Award<\/strong>, a $50,000 unrestricted fellowship. He\u2019s come a long way from when he made his first basket at the age of 18. \u201cI told my mom I wanted to go and make a basket when the\u00a0<strong>Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance<\/strong>\u00a0(MIBA) offered a workshop in our community. She was like, \u2018Yeah, sure.\u2019 When I started working, it was as if I were remembering something I\u2019d done before\u2014a cellular memory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">His first creation, a traditional \u201cpotato basket,\u201d was originally designed for farmers\u2019 use in Penobscot county. \u201cI was always drawn to making work-related baskets. My grandfather was a strict utilitarian. His baskets were tools and meant to be used. Very few basket makers my age were working in this tradition. They were making \u2018fancy\u2019 baskets, smaller and more decorative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWhen my grandfather developed emphysema, suddenly there was a time limit on how much I could learn. I went to live and study with him.\u201d Frey remembers vividly the day his grandfather said,\u00a0<i>I can teach you how to make baskets, but you must learn yourself how\u00a0<\/i><strong><i>you<\/i><\/strong><i>\u00a0make baskets.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cFor the longest time, I followed in my grandfather\u2019s footsteps. Strictly utility. Then I was making a basket for a friend and decided instead of just carving the handle, I\u2019d sand it down. It became a polished handle. You could see the sheen in the wood\u2014so satisfying! I began putting more time into each piece. I worked on the details and finished the edges. Each little thing led to more. A couple of elders said, \u2018That\u2019s not how you do it.\u2019 Remembering my grandfather I thought, \u2018That\u2019s not how\u00a0<i>you<\/i>\u00a0do it, but that\u2019s how\u00a0<i>I<\/i>\u00a0do it.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cFor us, form has always followed function\u2014the pack basket, for example. Prior to European contact in the U.S., roads were rivers and every family had a canoe. The design of the basket was flat on one side to fit your back and rounded on the other to fit into the hull of the canoe. The form is the function. The purses I make, for which I\u2019m now well-known, are shaped like the pack basket. I\u2019m still doing the same thing, but today, the function is different. They are wearable works of art built within the same tradition that connects people to my homeland in a physical way. This is all part of keeping the cultural history alive and maintaining awareness of what our society looked like prior to European influence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Thanks to the $50,000 prize, Frey expects to be able to devote more time to developing newer and more refined forms for current functions. He works another job part-time to support his family. \u201cI also have a small integrative massage practice in the Bangor area. I\u2019m primarily in clinical massage modalities\u2014myofascial release, trigger point, deep tissue massage, and sports massage.\u201d His wife, Suzanne Greenlaw, is a Maliseet doctoral candidate in ethnobiology at the University of Maine. They have two children, Musquon, 6, and Alamosit, 2. \u201cThe typical artist demands that you go down into your creative cave and come up after 3 days for food,\u201d Frey says. \u201cI could do that, but I\u2019m content. The children are amazing. You choose your struggles.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There are many spelling variations of Glooskap: Gluskabe, Gluscabi, Koluscap, Klouscap.<br \/>\n<\/span><span class=\"s1\">Know more? Share them with us at\u00a0<strong>staff@portlandmonthly.com<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>November 2019 10.\u00a0Dream Leader \u201cThat\u2019s not how you do it, but that\u2019s how I do it.\u201d\u00a0\u2014Gabriel Frey By Diane Hudson \u201cIsn\u2019t there an easier way?\u201d It\u2019s a question\u00a0Gabriel Frey, twelfth generation Passamaquoddy artist, is frequently asked. \u201cThey are well-meaning, but there are no shortcuts to doing what I do. \u201cI use\u00a0black ash\u00a0for my baskets. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-extras"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17039"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19521,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17039\/revisions\/19521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}