When you hear the name Frizzell you don't think of art, you think of Country Music, you think of Lefty Frizzell. Although the Frizzell family's music roots are part of Corey's heritage, he took a very different path, one not filled with music but instead with art and boxing.
Although Corey's passion for boxing kept him in and out of the ring for a decade, his love for drawing has always been there. Through the years, drawing was mostly a hobby for Corey, taking a backseat to his boxing career. Still, he perfected his craft, starting with cartoons and later moving on to comic book art, spending his teen years drawing murals of comic book heroes for friends. It would be years before he would draw his first portrait, inspired by one of his uncle, country music legend, Lefty Frizzell drawn by his Aunt Betty, a former portrait artist herself, which hung in his dad's office.
"I can remember staring at that portrait and wondering how someone could draw that well. How did she get it to look so real"? "I knew I wanted to draw people like that". - Corey
After the inspiration of that Lefty portrait took hold, Corey ventured into fine art portraiture and soon fell in love with creating them in pencil, developing his own technique and style. Since 1998, portraiture become a new focus in Corey's life, not just drawing them for family and friends anymore but finding himself being called on by the general public to create portraits of families and couples, to children and pets and loved ones who have passed on.
It wasn't long before Corey was creating custom portraits for collectors of his work in the entertainment World.
In 2001 Corey created a portrait of his uncle Lefty Frizzell for Hollywood movie producer, Brad Wilson ("Colors", "Fallen Down" "Tender Mercies" & "Days of Thunder") who is working hard to bring Lefty to the big screen.
In 2005 Corey created a portrait for 2000 Olympic Team Member and world ranked Professional boxer, James "Spider" Webb and was on hand to present it a few days before "Spider's" greatest professional victory on ESPN's Friday Night Fights.
Late 2005 and early 2006 marked the beginning of new endeavors for Corey as he spent the majority of his time creating portraits of the stars for the stars. For the first time you began to see the name Frizzell, which is so strongly associated with country music, on portraits of other great stars and legends. The industry began to take notice and see the appeal of fine
art portriats of country stars created by an artist with royal country music blood coursing through his veins. Frizzell would create portraits for many stars like, Randy Travis, Mark Chesnutt, Brad Paisley, Willie Nelson, Gene Watson and Alan Jackson to name a few.
In 2007 Corey completed four portraits for George Jones and partnered with Henry Paul, co-founder and lead singer for The Henry Paul Band, The Outlaws and Blackhawk, for a children’s book project. It looks like this artist may have found a niche as the "Artist to the Stars collaborating with the Keith Whitley Association to honor the late Keith Whitley In 2009 and having his portraits hang on the walls of the KY Music Hall of Fame and the world famous Nashville Palace. In 2010 Frizzell co-founded the Grassville show with award winning Bluegrass artist, Mark Newton and creates all image designs, production and acts as a creative advisor. Corey currently resides in middle Tennessee, where he works out of his home and continues to expand his portfolio. Corey is blazing a trail of his own while carrying on the family name. Now because of Corey when you hear the name Frizzell, you will think of art.
