Danna Fruetel has been interested in art since the age of 10 when she used to sit in her room for hours drawing pencil portraits of whatever picture she could find. At Maripose High School she took every art class available to her. After High School while in College she realized she was never going to make a living with her art so switched her major to Business, and life took over.

Danna married John in her twenties and had a daughter and a son in her thirties. During these years she never picked up a pencil to draw, her talent was just forgotten because life just kept her so busy. During the summer of 2002 she was putting some projects together for her kids to enter in the County Fair and thought to herself "guys, it would be fun to do a little drawing" so she did a graphite portrait of her daughter in about 4 hours. Her husband wasn't even aware she could draw. She ended up getting a first place at the County Fair.

After that she took some online courses from Bet Borgenson because she felt she really wanted to add some color to her pictures. She ended up taking three courses from Bet and has been drawing ever since. She has done many              commissions including portraits of people and pets.

She currently works full time for the Turlock Unified School District as an Elementary School Librarian, and has a very active family life with her husband and two children. They travel as often as possible and she considers herself a bit of a photographer on these many trips. She only uses her own photos when working on a piece.

She has been a member of CPSA since January 2006 and is currently on the board. Feel free to visit her family web site: www.bigfatdude.com

To view more of Danna's work, please visit www.bigfatdude.com