SWAMPSCOTT — When artist Nate Fontes-Fried isn’t in his workshop intricately cutting and nailing pieces of scrap-wood to create a nautical-themed “wood quilt,” he can often be found carving or polishing one of his thousands of homemade fishing lures, or shooting weddings for his photography company Nate Photography.
Fontes-Fried, a multitalented artist whose wood quilts hang in local businesses such as G Bar and Kitchen, and in homes across the region, is a living embodiment of the phrase “love what you do, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
“Your favorite thing to do can be just like what you’re doing right now,” Fontes-Fried said. “I feel like I’m lucky because I can do that. A lot of people don’t have their lives set up that way — they only have 30 minutes a day to do their favorite thing. I do it all the time.”
In a small shop on Orchard Road behind the site of the former Stanley School, Fontes-Fried uses pieces of scrap-wood he finds dumpster-diving or scouring beaches, forests, and construction sites, to turn trash into treasure — arranging the small blocks into multicolored and multitextured quilts in the shapes of sea creatures.
His collection of wood quilts ranges in size from small whales constructed out of wood from the former Stanley School to a 10-foot shark that hangs high on his workshop wall.
“I love it (the whale) because it’s just super representative of our pocket of town,” Fontes-Fried said. “People are gravitating towards these whales because it’s a piece of Stanley. A lot of the teachers have bought them or people have bought them for the teachers as gifts.”
Fontes-Fried began his wood-working career making bird houses out of old wooden crates while living in Boston. When he moved to Swampscott nine years ago with his wife Daniela and his son Ethan, he said his craft helped him connect with the town.
“If I have these doors open, and I have art outside, people just naturally come up and see what’s happening,” Fontes-Fried said. “It’s nice because it helps me navigate through the town and through the community … a lot of this stuff is just a really cool way for me to communicate with everybody.”
After high school, Fontes-Fried worked as a carpenter building houses in Marblehead and Swampscott. He said he grew frustrated building houses that weren’t his own, and wanted to reap the fruits of his labor. After traveling the country on a road trip one summer, Fontes-Fried showed his grandmother the photos he took on his trip, and she encouraged him to go to photography school.
Fontes-Fried attended the New England School of Photography and went on to work as a freelance photojournalist for Boston publications such as Boston Magazine. Now, he spends most of his summer and fall seasons photographing weddings and other large events for his own company.
When he started fishing 10 years ago and decided to make his own lure, Fontes-Fried saw another one of his hobbies turn into a lucrative business. He began selling his intricate, hand-carved fishing lures to his friends and later to small fishing stores across New England. Most of his sales come from the lures he sells on Instagram — a platform Fontes-Fried said he particularly enjoys because it allows him to interact with his customers on a more personal level.
“There’s days I don’t go out fishing, and I’m bummed I didn’t go, and then I check my Instagram messages and someone will say ‘I just caught my personal best with your lure.’ It’s like I was fishing. My stuff’s out there and I’m feeling like I’m in the water.”
Some people know Fontes-Fried solely as a photographer, others know him as a fisherman or a lure salesman, and others know him for his wood work. Whichever piece of work Fontes-Fried is pursuing, he said he does it because he loves it.
“Whatever I’m doing is what I’m in love with,” Fontes-Fried said. “I just feel sorry for people who have made their life to a point where they’re trying to squeeze in something that they enjoy. I’m the opposite of that — you won’t find me doing things I don’t enjoy. There’s not enough time.”
