About Fredi Leaf...
Winfred Lucile Mohr was born in Houston, Texas on 19 April, 1931.
Her parents began calling her Fredi at an early age. Fredi married
Marshall Leaf in 1960 and changed her name to Winfred Mohr Leaf, or Fredi
Leaf, for short. Fredi began creating art as a young child and showed
her skill in many drawings in high school. She won the Hunt Speedball
Pen National Scholastic contest and received cash and art supplies.
She won a scholarship to the Art Center Association at the University
of Louisville, Kentucky to study fine arts in 1952. Fredi went on to draw
and paint in college and then worked as a commercial artist in Chicago,
drawing labels, posters, and advertisement graphics until about 1965.
Fredi continued to study painting, and worked with teachers such
as Rudolph Penn at the Old Town Triangle Association in Chicago.
Fredi's paintings and drawings took a back seat to her folk art in the
1990s to present, as she focused more on making three-dimensional figures
and masks.
Fredi currently lives with her husband, Marshall, in Chicago, in the same
house that contains her third-floor studio, and where she has lived and
worked since 1961. Fredi raised two children, Brook and Erika, and
they both love art and regularly use their creative skills that Fredi
inspired in them. She also has worked at the Chicago History Museum
(http://www.chicagohs.org/)
in the Textile Conservation Lab as a conservation technician for over
20 years, conserving garments, dolls, and aritfacts. Fredi's paintings
are in the collections of friends and family members around the USA, and
many are stored in her house in Chicago. There is also a large collection
of Fredi's work hung at Frogwood Lodge Retreat Center in Boonville, California
(www.frogwood.org).
A View of Fredi's Studio
© Fredi Leaf - Website by Zariat . 8Petal Creative Media