Over her 30-plus years as a mixed media artist in Virginia, Frankie Slaughter has challenged herself to create art in various mediums. From intensely colorful paintings and porcelain panels to oversized sculptures and hand-sewn textiles.
Artist: Born in Lynchburg, VA, Slaughter grew up with artistic parents. Her mom practiced modern dance and later taught art history. Her father (after retiring from practicing criminal law) was also an artist and performed magic. He later began a career as an accomplished drawing master and printmaker.
Over her 30-plus years as a mixed media artist in Virginia, Frankie Slaughter has challenged herself to create art in various mediums, ranging from intensely colorful paintings and porcelain panels t oversized sculptures and hand-sewn textiles.
Slaughter spent most of her childhood at the local arts center, where her mother worked and where Slaughter took a variety of art and theater classes.
A self-taught artist, Slaughter later graduated with a BA from the University of Virginia. Since then, over a three-decade period, she has attended a variety of workshops and classes throughout the country, including the Visual Arts Center, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Penland School of Craft and Anderson Ranch Center.
Company/studio: Frankie Slaughter Designs started in 2000 and is based in Richmond. The artist’s studio is in a renovated 100-year-old carriage house behind her home.
In the beginning: After the birth of her first daughter, more than thirty years ago, Slaughter rediscovered her love of clay and began attending workshops, which led to eventually exhibiting and expanding her repertoire work.
Art & materials: Mixed media works using a variety of materials, including encaustic, repurposed fabric, paper and porcelain in various sizes.
- Works on paper: Collage, monoprint, digital prints, cold waxes and acrylic ($800 to $7,000).
- Works on panel: Encaustic, oil and mixed media ($800 to $7,000).
- Fiber art: Jackets, textile wall art ($8,000 to $50,000).
- Ceramic: Porcelain earthenware ($525 to $10,000).
- Necklaces: Pendants and various beads, including handmade ceramic beads ($200 to $800).
- Installation: Large-scale sculptural works that include materials such as porcelain, wood, glass, copper, wire and fiber ($3,000 to $50,000).
What’s popular: Larger, more colorful works on panel.
Favorite or must-have tools: Palette knife, silicone scraper tool, razor blade, pottery trimming tools, needle and thread.
Inspirations:
- Artists of the past: Joseph Cornell and Robert Rauschenberg
- Contemporary sculptors: Chakaia Booker and Joana Vasconcelos.
Special or unusual project: For each of her exhibits, Slaughter challenges herself to make an oversized installation. One of the more challenging and rewarding installations was a nine-foot-tall dress made of copper, wood and mirrored glass (image at bottom right)..
“The dress invites the viewer into considerations of vulnerability, personal “armor,” outer masks and disguises,” she said.
Awards/honors:
- Named one of “Richmond Style Weekly’s 2015 Women in the Arts Honoree.” The Weekly also recognized Slaughter for her collection of mixed media art and wearable jackets
- Virginia Museum of Fine Art gift shop sells her unique necklaces.
Recent project: In January 2024, Slaughter completed a 15-feet-by-10-feet monochromatic textile titled “Pathways to Understanding,” the largest-scale work of her career (image below and closeup at right).
“I found the raw materials for the textile in thrift stores where I bought every white or off-white dress, skirt, coat or tutu I could find, then rushed to my studio to transform them into squares of repeating shapes and patterns,” said Slaughter. “I spent more than eight months sewing the squares together to create this enormous hanging textile installation.”
What’s next:
- Exhibition of a new collection at Palette Home in Richmond, VA, in early November.
- Hopes to complete an idea she has for a ceramic, free-standing sculpture of porcelain spheres covered in recycled jewelry.
Where to buy:
- Frankieslaughter.com
- Lucky Fish Gallery, Greensboro, NC.
- Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA.
Connect: Instagram: @Frankieslaughter
