Louis Frisino

Louis Frisino has been interested in art since childhood and has always drawn, with or without encouragement, in spite of those who felt that the deaf should pursue a more sensible and secure career in life. His love of dogs and wildlife was an incentive to develop his talent.

Deaf since birth, he attended the Maryland School for the Deaf in Frederick, graduating in 1953. He later graduated with honors from the Maryland Institute College of Art, receiving at that time the Peabody Award.

Since then he has exhibited in art festivals all along the Eastern seaboard, winning numerous awards for his work. He has done extensive artwork including the drawing of 45 separate fish for the 1970 edition of Fishing in Maryland, published in Baltimore. His work was also featured in the Spring ’72 issue of North American Decoys, published in Herber City, Utah. In addition his work can be seen I many art and specialty shops across the United States.

Outdoor scenes and especially wildlife are the artist’s favorite subjects, which he interprets with unbelievable realism. He prefers to use watercolors or acrylics, but he also combines the watercolor with opaque tempera for different effects and textures in different lights. He uses several techniques to capture the realism besides using mixed-media paint and sometimes uses a white background in a vignette style so the subject itself is centered and emphasized. He has also worked from photographs on special orders to capture the uniqueness of a personal pet.

Although only 50, Mr. Frisino is retired from the News American, where he was employed as a commercial artist for 25 years. In addition to painting 8 or more hours a day he also pursues his woodcarving and taxidermy collection hobbies. He makes his home in Severn, Maryland, with his wife Elaine and the youngest of their three children.