I am drawn to the water’s edge; living and working on the SouthCoast allows me to be inspired daily by the coastline that surrounds us.
Many of my drawings and design projects explore the boundary between interior and exterior space. The fluidity of a line, the thickness and weight of a line define space and how we understand three dimensions on a two-dimensional plane.
As an architect, my work is often about the literal physical space and/or shelter from the weather. How much insulation, what type of exterior cladding, where are the doors and windows.
As an artist, I understand shelter as an emotion. It is a feeling of safety and often comfort. For example, I find shelter at home with the comfort of knowing that I shared this space with my mother whose memory is embodied in each room.
As a shop owner, I find shelter in the community we have built in this historic neighborhood. There is comfort in seeing the sequence of its morning routine – businesses opening of the day, visitors filtering into the Whaling Museum, and the sounds and smells of the morning’s light.
More from the artist:
My working environment moves from place to place—I often meet with clients in their space to review concepts and ideas for their project. I work on construction sites where we interpret drawings and review conditions with contractors and tradespeople. My physical workspace is immersed in an art & design shop, in my home and in my studio surrounded by bits and pieces of multiple projects, drawings and diagrams that represent spaces whose purpose is to provide shelter, and hopefully comfort and safety. When designing living spaces on the water’s edge, the boundary between
interior and exterior space is often blurred. In the winter, we long to
bring the light and warmth and indoors and in the summer we long to push
the indoors outward.
Anthi Frangiadis is an architect, artist and shop owner whose
professional career is currently based in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Educated at the Rhode Island School of Design where she received a
Bachelor of Architecture & Bachelor of Fine Arts, with a
Concentration in Art History, her artwork and her retail shop complement
her professional career as an architect. She finds drawing meditative
and communicative with a variety of line and charcoal drawings, mostly
large in scale, in her portfolio. The retail shop known as The Drawing
Room, in historic downtown New Bedford, is a result of the creativity
infused in her architectural projects, her belief in the renaissance of
New Bedford’s downtown neighborhood, and her support of the region’s
finest makers.
Music is both a doorway and a shelter. Musicians of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert at our Custom House Square installation with a program of music that embodies the spirit of both these enduring values.