Behind every piece of art is an artist with a story. Freya’s is a remarkable one.
Freya was born in 2007.
Freya is autistic and lives with epilepsy. She also experiences significant sensory processing difficulties. For Freya, making sense of the world around her can be an enormous challenge. Understanding what is happening, interpreting the behaviour of others and navigating everyday situations are often far from straightforward. Things that most people take for granted can require considerable effort, patience and support.
But these challenges tell only a small part of Freya’s story.
Freya is a lively young woman with a wonderfully distinctive personality and a wicked sense of humour. She loves swimming, keeping active and tackling a good puzzle. She also has a strong need for order and organisation, often carefully arranging her surroundings and working through a mental list of things to be done. While this is closely connected to the challenges she experiences, it is also a familiar part of everyday life with Freya. Her playful spirit, strong preferences and sense of humour make her a memorable character.
And she loves art.
Freya enjoys creating, experimenting with colours and exploring shapes and patterns. Her paintings and drawings are striking for their intricacy, repeated forms and distinctive combinations of colour. Some are vibrant and expressive, filled with overlapping circles and shapes. Others are monochrome, revealing a remarkable fascination with pattern, structure and detail.
What makes these works particularly meaningful is the contrast between the challenges Freya faces in everyday life and the care, concentration and creativity evident in her art.
For someone with Freya's challenges, creating such intricate work is a considerable achievement.
But Freya’s paintings deserve recognition for more than the circumstances in which they were created. They are interesting, engaging and beautiful works in their own right.
With the love and dedication of her family and the people who support her, Freya continues to learn, develop and discover new opportunities to enjoy life and express herself.
The World According to Freya brings together a growing collection of her work, celebrating not only what she has achieved but also her individuality, personality and creativity.
Above all, this collection is an invitation to appreciate Freya as an artist.
See the art first. Discover the remarkable story of the artist second.
Freya’s art mentor
Freya’s creativity is nurtured by the people around her. Her art mentor, Claire Cockayne, gives her space to explore her ideas and encourages her to trust her own way of seeing.
“What I particularly love about Freya’s work is her ability to notice the little things that others might overlook. When she is given something observational to work from, she often picks up on the smallest details, which she then interprets in her own way, sometimes producing wonderfully abstract pieces. There is a real individuality and sensitivity to the way she sees things, and it’s lovely to see that reflected in her artwork.”