Does life reflect art or does art reflect life? I asked myself when I met the artist and interior designer Michele (Mikki) Frederickx, usually known by the name with which she signs her paintings, Mikki.F.
Her new gallery in Algoz is a blaze of colour and light with artefacts that draw the eye on from one corner of the room to another. The force of Mikki's energy and enthusiasm for her work is evident in every aspect of the gallery which is also her home. She has a passion for art and in making her home a 3D artwork Mikki is transforming her own life experiences into a surrounding that is both positive and creative.
Mikki studied graphic design at Fugra St Lucas in her home town of Ghent and went on to study fashion design at the Royal Academy in Antwerp. She then spent 15 years designing, displaying and marketing jewellery at the successful boutique which she owned with her husband in Knokke. Within a short period of time, however, this talented and successful artist experienced a number of emotional blows: the deaths of her father and mother, her 18 year old stepson, two of her best friends and a painful divorce. Left with a loss of her personality and self confidence after thirteen years of marriage, Mikki had just enough money to buy a small gallery. After she met her second husband, she sold her gallery and mother´s apartment and opened a Bed and Breakfast business in Portugal. After 8 years when she was 47, yet another death followed, that of her second marriage. She was left to recommence her life with virtually nothing. These traumas led her to question how she was living her own life and caused her months of severe depression.
While she was undergoing this period of reflection and redefinition, there was for a time no painting and no colour for Mikki as she sought direction in her life. In his book The Girl at the Lion D´Or (1989), Sebastian Faulkes wrote, What if all our lives are just a circle where at a certain point you cross an unseen trip-wire that sets spinning the same process again? One act of will, of self-restraint, might break the circuit .... At last Mikki succeeded in breaking out of her circuit and we may now see her artistic talents flourishing. It is a part of her recovery process to find and help other people who are looking for their own circuit breaker. She aims to help and encourage these people to express their own creativity and for them she runs a weekly ceramics workshop in her gallery.
Mikki.F has exhibited her canvasses three times in Belgium, in Sun Valley USA and in eight locations here in the Algarve before becoming the permanent artist at Monte Santo in Carvoeiro. She has already successfully exhibited twice at Monte Santo (Nature in Progress and Marrakech) and her current exhibition of eleven canvasses (Retrospective ) at Monte Santo Clubhouse runs until 31 August. Hard on its heels, Hidden Thoughts will run from 1 September to the end of the year at the same location and will reflect the deepest thoughts of the artist.
As well as being an artist of talent, Mikki Frederickx is also a gallery owner. Her first art gallery was in in Knokke-Zoute in Belgium and in her new life in the Algarve she moved to to a small gallery in Poço Barreto near Silves in 2007, and to her latest in 2009 on the new estate at Algoz, Urbanisação Olival da Colina Verde. In September/October this year, Mikki will be spending more time on interior design as she and the owner of the estate open a new showroom close to her gallery. In both the gallery and the showroom, Mikki ensures a warm welcome and she is already planning events to encourage people to call in and find out what she is up to. Mikki´s grasp of psychology and her communication skills enable her to understand what people want and she says, it is not the amount of money that people want to spend that matters but it is rather about their personal taste and about communicating with them what is possible and perhaps opening them up to ideas that they had not thought about. Colour and style are both key features to Mikki and in her own gallery they illustrate her vision.
For example, she created her own kitchen on the smallest of budgets. Employing stunning colours, she uses bricks as shelf supports and she adds to the attraction of old wooden furniture by fixing her own ceramic knobs on cupboard doors. She constructed much of the furniture out of old building wood, and with her imagination and excellent taste conveys the overall impression of creative energy and focus. Mikki boasted that she was so far under budget for her kitchen that she gave herself a luxury treat - a designer coffee machine.
Mikki´s own artwork is by no means on hold. She has recently been to the south of France to explore the possibility of exhibiting there and from 10 September until 10 November she will be showing her paintings on The Arabic Influence at Café Inglês in Silves. She has exhibited artworks previously at the Porco Preto Gallery in Monchique, Quinta do Lago and Studio GT in Loulé.
Mikki´s artistic talents appear endless. She has proved her talent in the design of jewellery and in creating canvasses and now in the design and creation of ceramics. She also makes silk flowers, paints frescoes, murals and furniture, and she advises on colour and interior design. She even has a talent for building design since one of her most important projects to date was to design an iron staircase for the clubhouse of Oostburg Golf Club in the Netherlands. And now she has also branched out into journalism, writing a monthly article on interior design for Algarve Good Life.
There can be no doubt of Mikki´s eye for design and colour and her creativity. She has a desire to work with others to bring out their artistic potential and to help them use their own life experiences to create a positive outcome and she encourages them to exhibit their work at the regularThursday artists´gathering in the square between the castle and cathedral in Silves (fondly known by the artists as Praça Montmartre).Her own traumatic experiences have led to important lifestyle changes and she can guide others to reflect on what values they hold and how they want to live their lives. Now that Mikki has taken control of her own life, her new design for living is bringing her energy and peace.
As I left her gallery after our interview, I could answer my own question. For Mikki F, it must be that her life is reflected in her art.
To contact Mikki: info.mikki.f@gmail.com or mobile 964 934 612.
