The Truth In This Art, created by Rob Lee, is a podcast interview series supporting the vibrancy and development of Baltimore's(and beyond) arts and culture. The Peale is thrilled to be able to add these interviews to the Baltimore Stories archive.

Rob Lee (00:10): Welcome to the Truth in this Art. I am your host, Rob Lee. Today I have the pleasure of being on site. This is this it's like I'm in a gallery that also doubles as a house that also doubles as probably one of the best places I've been to this year.

Espi Frazier (00:27): Oh, thank you.

Rob Lee (00:28): It's only a little bit of gas there, but mostly it's just like, I'm really excited about being here. My next guest has creative themes that include both the female as a goddess life giver and the integral beauty of African people. Please welcome Espi Frazier. Welcome to the podcast.

Espi Frazier (00:45): Hello everyone. Good to be here.

Rob Lee (00:48): Thank you so much for coming on. I'm glad we were able to do that back end follow up from when we went to Ernest this show and I was like, "All right, I got to make sure I'm getting all of my interviews. I networked here. I've done things." So I'm glad we were able to connect. So can you tell us a bit about your background, where you grew up and in what ways maybe some early visual experiences led to your art making?

Espi Frazier (01:14): I grew up in Chicago, south side of Chicago, right down the street from White Sox park. I was raised in a foster home. My foster mom was a very artistic person. I don't even think she knew she was an artist. She made all of our clothes. She was a milliner. She could grow anything. She could grow your hair. She could grow garden stuff. I mean, she was very talented. She was always making something and always doing stuff. She was a big part of the Baptist church. We lived in the Baptist church on Sunday, all day long, Sunday morning, this, that the other, the whole deal. She inspired me to want to draw, here's some crayon baby, go over there, sit down and you can do this, go draw something. So I would get the newspaper.

Espi Frazier (02:03): I love to look at the clothes that we are in the Sears, Roebuck and all that stuff. I would draw that stuff. I would look at magazines and try to copy what I saw in magazines. So drawing was my way to keep me going, because I have dyslexia. So school was not a wonderful place for me. Art was the one place that I could shine.

Rob Lee (02:25): Yeah.

Espi Frazier (02:25): Art was my thing, and then while I was in high school, I went to Wendell Phillips High School. I had a wonderful high school teacher, we had double period art was my heaven. Two periods in a row doing art.

Rob Lee (02:44): Yeah.

Espi Frazier (02:44): She invited a seven of us. She said, "I went to the school of the art Institute and you can go to school." Yeah. And we looked at her, we said, "This white woman, she don't know what she talking, we black people, she talking about going to school. We don't have no money." She said, "Don't worry about that. They had scholarships. You should apply." So we applied, but we didn't get in. But the black student union spoke up for us and got us in.

Rob Lee (03:10): Good.

Espi Frazier (03:10): Okay. So I went to the School of the Art Institute, people from all over the world going there, a few of us black people were there, but it's mostly international school. Great experience because I just grew up on the south side. I didn't know anything about folks from all over the world and stuff. It was really cool. So I decided I was going to go in the fashion design. I'm going to be a fashion designer because that's what I want to do. I did it for one year and said, no, I don't want to make it. I want to draw it. At that time they only had one fashion illustration course I took it twice.

Asset ID: 2022.13.02

Transcription abbreviated: Contact the Peale for a complete transcript.