Oliver Fredericksen is anything but the average teenage boy. He is a growing artist, aspiring to create his own company in order to spread a simple message: “Anything is possible.”
Fredericksen specializes in drawing and animation. When asked to describe his style in three words, the CHS freshman replies sarcastically, “Better than yours,” laughs with a giant smile, thinks for a moment and replies again: “Colorful and dope.”
Five years ago, the local artist received a book from his father on how to shade and taught himself from there.
“I started drawing all of this little stuff, like naked frogs. I don’t know why, I just liked drawing frogs.”
This became the start of many projects featuring random but creative subjects, such as a cat with wings, a monkey riding a unicycle and a human dribbling a basketball.
Most of the teenager’s work originates in his room. He begins the process by sitting down on his hot pink chair surrounded by his room’s bright blue walls, and if he comes up with a cool idea, he’ll draw it. Otherwise, he says, “I’ll draw a weird old guy.”
Another location of creation is school. The teenager admits to doodling in most of his classes and sometimes will create a character he’ll fall in love with. Another room where the magic happens is in his third period classroom: “I usually go to study hall, end up falling asleep, then wake up and draw something I saw in my dream.”
Fredericksen points out that he never had a professional art teacher until he came to high school.
Frederickson works on a profile of Obama in his math workbook.
“He surprised me,” art teacher Steven Russell says. “He’s very creative, very inventive and has his own personal style.”
Recently, the local artist has taken his art to the next level by putting it on T-shirts and hoodies.
“I looked at my old clothes and thought, ‘These all suck! These are doo doo! I want really cool clothes,’” says the teenager, pointing at his white T-shirt with a green melting face, orange hair and a blue baseball cap.
In the future, Fredericksen plans to start his own clothing brand.
“I want to make socks and shoes, and I want my style to be kind of childish.”
As for now, he sells his clothes on his website, NerdVenom.com.
When asked where Fredericksen gets his inspiration, his eyes double in size and he starts speaking with much excitement. He shares that his number-one role model is Tyler the Creator. “He’s super creative, and he does a lot of cool stuff.” Other inspirations include Seth Macfarlane, Anthony Jeselnik and Erykah Badu.
“He’s very individualistic,” says Fredericksen’s older sister, CHS sophomore Katya. “The fact that he started his own company is just dazzling!”
Fredericksen announces that the message he tries to send out through his art is all about positivity and possibility.
“Do something in your life that impacts the world, and have fun with it, but don’t be so self-absorbed. Be yourself!”
-Julia Sudol
