Multifaceted artist, wood-worker and painter, Jerg Frogley, 77, has spent much of her life exploring her many talents. Frogley, originally from Oswego, Kansas, began painting as a young woman alongside her lifelong friend (and Local Color Art Gallery member), Joan Allen. Although, according to Frogely, she went on hiatus for some time from painting to focus on her career. Professionally, Frogely 'flipped houses,' or made repairs rather, in order for properties to become market ready up until her retirement at age seventy-five.
Due to her career in home repairs, Frogley had access to most of the necessary tools needed to begin developing her craft. Within some time after retirement, and with the purchase of a lathe, she began turning out bowls, building benches, constructing tables, making cutting boards and sculpting more novelty items as time went on. Giving most of her work away to friends and family as gifts.
What started for Frogley as a pass-time hobby eventually became a recognized skill and a new source of income. Roughly three years after her first attempts at turning, in May, 2020, Frogley was invited to join the artist roster at Joplin's Local Color Art Gallery and began selling her wooden creations.
There is something truly admirable about Jerg Frogley's work. She is a prime example of dedication as a self taught, independent female artist. Think...who do you know that's past retirement age, who's working long hours (on her own dime) and utilizing dangerous machinery with next to no assistance? All to satisfy an unshakable desire to express and create?
