D1 Birds and Benches Mentor Artist Presentation: Ronnie Frostad

Ronnie Frostad was born in Los Angeles, California but grew up in the Sacramento, California area. Her childhood was surrounded by a world of art, as her mother was a prolific 2-dimensional artist. Ronnie showed an early natural gift for art and developed her own techniques of painting, sculpting in clay, and calligraphy. She won art contests and designed the cover of her high school yearbooks in her junior and senior years.

Following graduation from high school, she felt the necessity to study for a career that was more secure than that of art, although she still maintained her love of art. She earned a degree as a registered dental assistant in 1978 from Sacramento City College and worked in this field for 5-years. This field allowed her to earn a living, but she knew this was not her calling, and she decided to pursue a career in art, wherever that path would lead her.

Ronnie studied art at American River College and the University of Davis with a strong interest in sculpting. Following her studies, she became manager of a small bronze art foundry in Shingle Springs, California then mid-town Sacramento. She decided to open her own foundry in Rocklin, California in 1998, and soon the foundry produced a number of large-size sculptures by various artists. After 5-years in this facility, the need for a larger foundry became evident, and she moved the foundry to the recently-closed McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento. This was a 28,000 square-foot foundry that allowed the construction of many monumental-size sculptures including the largest standing lion in the world. However, the growth of McClellan businesses surrounding this foundry did not allow movement of large sculptures out of the foundry, so she moved to her present location in North Natomas, Sacramento in 2015. This foundry is state-of-the-art with an attached art gallery.

Ronnie is the only woman in the United States who owns and operates a foundry on a daily basis. However, besides casting sculptures for other artists, she has continued to sculpt and paint. She has completed and installed many of her own commissioned sculptures including a recently-completed 9-foot “Iron Man” sculpture in Los Angeles, California and a 15-foot “Virgin Mary” sculpture in Mount Shasta, California. She has also taught a semester sculpting class for Consumnes River College, numerous lectures on foundry techniques, and week-end workshops.

Ronnie is married to Dr. Kenneth Frostad, a periodontist, and she has 5-children and 5-grandchildren-their Gigi. She loves her personal life and her professional life, and she cannot see herself ever retiring.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher City of Sacramento, Office of Arts and Culture