Angelina Joy Tolentino

aka Gina, Frosty the Artist

Born in 1971 in Venice Beach and growing up in Northern California, I developed a love for art and the ocean from an early age. I worked professionally in digital media, graphic design, illustration, branding and marketing. In 2011 my husband and I opened a successful pizzeria, where we have married art & design with food & community. I have painted large murals, and I like to dabble in other mediums such as film, ceramics, and printmaking. My current visual language includes horizons, tears, skeleton fish, oil drops, rocks, seashells, fissures, mermaids, cats and kisses. I am also devoted to the memory of Tokitae, a resident orca whale who was violently captured in Penn Cove, and sold into slavery in 1970. She died in Miami in 2023 after more than 50 years of imprisonment. I write to her almost every day.

Inspiration comes from many sources, but visually I am is drawn to avant-garde fashion, packaging design, burlesque and circus performers, and classic early animation. My mixed heritage of Filipina, German, English, and Norwegian and my ties to Okinawa, India, and Italy are sources I draw upon. When I'm not painting you can usually find me at a beach, and I enjoy a good cold plunge!