Dee Friesen is a self taught artist who always enjoyed drawing, but didn't pick up a paint brush until the late 1980s.

Native to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, she and her husband have lived on an acreage in Manitoba's Interlake since 1978. They enjoy their quiet lifestyle amid their 'critters': a couple of donkeys, mini horses, goats, chickens, even a pot-bellied pig named Petunia, and of course their dogs and cats. Considering her deep love of animals and nature, they became the focus of her art. Joining these two passions she began painting wildlife on rocks, found in abundance in the Interlake and along the shores of Lake Winnipeg.

Dee was an active member of the Gimli Art Club for eight years, and through the club she painted two murals along the Gimli Sea Wall, entitled "Breaking Ground" and "Faces of the Interlake". Her works have received various awards at juried art shows. Many pieces, sold at art exhibitions, have found homes across Canada, the U.S., Mexico, and Europe. She often paints commissions upon request.

After choosing and scrubbing a rock, she uses acrylic paints as her medium of choice, exposing as much of the natural stone as possible. When the painting is completed she applies a couple of coats of acrylic sealer to protect the art. Often this brings out the beauty in the rock, the way varnish brings out the grain in wood.

It is very rewarding to find a unique rock and see what image it is calling out to become. Its shape and texture contributes to its destiny in the hands of the artist.