Photo by Phil Nohl
Faridi McFree
Images of Bob Dylan (left), Sara Dylan (second from left), and Faridi McFree (far right).
Art collectors come in many varieties, but one characteristic they all share is a passion for and commitment to the artists they collect. Consider Sheboygan resident, former filmmaker and one-time drummer and music producer Phil Nohl. Few collectors wax as enthusiastic about art as he does about the work of Faridi McFree, and he will exhibit many pieces from his extensive McFree collection October 9 and 16 at the Old Town Hall Studio & Gallery in Belgium, Wisconsin.
Born Frieda Asmar in Hillside, New Jersey, in 1936, McFree started as an Eastern Airlines flight attendant, but her career didn’t take flight until she married Michael Hanft, who she worked with at the William Morris Agency. The couple moved to Bearsville, a rural suburb of Woodstock, New York, in the 1960s. They befriended others in the arts, including members of The Band and, most notably, Bob and Sara Dylan.
In the 1970s, the Hanfts moved to Santa Monica, California, where Michael worked in television for producers Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas, while Faridi became involved in the budding New Age movement. Their paths with The Band and the Dylans crossed again in 1975, after which Faridi, a self-designated designer and artist, began teaching art to the Dylan children. In 1977, after the Dylans divorced and the Hanfts separated, Faridi found herself involved in a year-long love affair with the songwriter, living with Dylan on a farm he owned in his native Minnesota. The affair ended and she moved back to California, where she pursued what she called “Healing Art.” She eventually moved to New York City and became an inter-faith minister, using art to help critical-care children and the terminally ill. She died in 2009.
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Purchased on eBay
Nohl entered the scene some years later, when he purchased several boxes of 8mm films on eBay that were marked “Woodstock.” Collecting amateur films and recordings was nothing new for Nohl, who helped develop a 4,000-disc collection of recordings that are now part of Princeton University’s permanent archives. But he soon found himself immersed in his McFree collection. The eBay seller had purchased the contents of an abandoned storage locker in Los Angeles. Realizing what he had, Nohl eventually purchased everything the seller had connected to McFree.
Nohl began to search the Internet for more McFree material, coming upon yet another source, a woman who had bought the contents of an abandoned New Jersey storage locker. Michael Hanft, who eventually legally changed his name to Michael McFree, had been paying for the lockers prior to his death several years before, Nohl says. The Sheboygan collector was entranced with the artist’s spin on brightly colored and wildly imaginative children’s art.
“There are more than 100 of what I would caller ‘major’ works that would be worthy to hang in a gallery,” says Nohl. “Most are small in size, painted pieces mounted on colored chipboard. Like many ‘outsider’ artists, she never seemed to have much money, but what she did have she spent on art supplies and photocopies.”
The Old Town Hall exhibit will feature about 60 pieces, along with about 30 of McFree’s smaller works that Nohl will be selling for $80 each, splitting the sales proceeds with the gallery. The exhibit also will feature films produced by McFree, personal artifacts and examples of her writing.
McFree forever felt her work would be overshadowed by her connection to Dylan, which in part led to her development of the Healing Art genre. She was prolific, dedicated and, in Nohl’s mind, talented. But there is little chance she ever will entirely shake Dylan’s shadow, the collector adds.
“She did want fame,” Nohl says. “In one of her journals she states that her Healing Art will make her more famous than Dylan. It’s hard not to love such a naïve comment, especially after viewing the art. Her work will no doubt have a limited appeal to most,” the collector adds, “but a strong appeal to a minority tapped into the same self-help philosophies Faridi held so dear.”
Art by Faridi McFree will be on display October 9 and 16 from 2 to 8 p.m. at the Old Town Hall Studio & Gallery, 814 Main Street, Belgium Wisconsin. Admission is free.
