FRIZ
Sligo native Friz is a visual artist based in Bangor, Co. Down. She works in both digital and traditional mediums, using a combination of aerosols and acrylics depending on the surface she is using at the time.
Her work explores history, myths and the folklore that shapes the cultural identity of a place. Using these stories to create a journey of discovery for people as they reconnect with some of their earliest and formative memories. The medium of murals allow these stories to be presented as part of the fabric of the place to new generations and told in a contemporary way.
As a female artist her work leans towards presenting powerful female characters. By juxtaposing with fierce predatory animals she portrays femininity through an alternative lens and explores our connection with the natural world. Sometimes it is a mirror, sometimes an aspiration.
THE STORY
The Arctic Fox
Francis Leopold McClintock was born at No.1 Seatown in 1819, he was second born of 14 children, and always had a great sense of adventure!
He was educated at Dundalk Grammer School, and at only 12 years old he joined the Navy as a first class volunteer at only 12 years old onboard HMS Samarang. He excelled in the navy and went up through the ranks very quickly, becoming captain of his own ship ‘The Fox’!
His crowning glory was the discovery of ‘The Erbus’ and ‘Terror’ in 1859 from the ill-fated expedition of Sir john Franklin, lost in the arctic some 12 years previous.
He was knighted by George V for his outstanding service to arctic exploration. He died in London in 1907 and is buried in Kensington Cemetery.
There is a plaque to his memory in Westminster Abbey, the only Irishman to have one.