Misha Frid  Misha Frid (born November 22, 1938) is a Russian-born American sculptor, artist, graphic designer, and filmmaker who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Frid immigrated to the US in 1972 with his wife, Galina, and their two sons. His works are housed in private and corporate collections and galleries and museums around the world. Frid was born in 1938 to a Jewish family in Moscow. His father was from Lithuania, and his mother was from Belarus. When he was five, his father took him to a music school to study the violin; his father dreamed of seeing him become a concert violinist, but Misha's dream was to become a sculptor. Five years later, he switched from his music school to art school to study graphic arts and sculpture; however, music has remained an important part of his life. Frid graduated from high school in 1955 with honors. He also graduated with honors from Moscow State Art College in 1967 and the University of Fine Arts in the city, and studied film directing at the Russian State University of Cinematography in Moscow in 1972. In 1964, he had an exhibition at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow with other young artists. Russian culture and literature influence Frid's artistry. A love for Russian composers and Russian ballet inspired him, and he sees ballet as sculpture in motion. A hot summer in 1972 resulted in crop failure and famine, and led to an appeal from Russia for help from the UN; however, the Iron Curtain prevented wheat imports from the US. The US agreed to help the USSR in exchange for 150 refuseniks to be allowed out of the Soviet Union, and Leonid Brezhnev agreed. At the time Frid was a member of the Sculptor Society of Russia, and his work was on exhibit in museums. His art was screened through official channels; only safe, government-approved subject matter was permitted, and there was no freedom of speech. The "Jackson Amendment" (as it was called in Russia) benefited Frid's family, and he received a letter permitting him to leave Russia within 14 days with $80 per person. Frid, his wife and two sons (11 months and five years) emigrated to the United States. In 1978, Frid became a US citizen. He developed a working relationship with the artist and designer Erté, who was 80 years old: "I felt like a young writer, having the incredible fortune to know Shakespeare". Wentworth Publishing Corporation represented Frid from 1990 to 2011, selling over 5,000 of his sculptures.