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artistsofaustin · 6 years

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J. Sam Frankel

“Don't live life as an artist, live life through the eyes of an artist. Even if your purpose in life is to be an artist/creative/visual story teller, life doesn't always call for paint or pen.”

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What triggered your initial interest to make art?

I was around 6 or so when I showed my initial interest in art - it would be heavily inspired and fueled by my grandmother, Kaye. Or Neenaw as we called her. She was involved with Art Therapy at a rehabilitation center in Lexington, Kentucky. There is a small doodle I did at this time while visiting her, its my first still life done on a pharmaceutical company post it note. A boot-shaped looking vase with a couple sad flowers in bic pen. From then on, I was doodling in the margins of dog-earred notebooks, from kindergarten with Inspector Gadget/Get Smart-esque spies to middle school textbooks.

I don't remember a time I was not doodling or ideating on anything I could get my hands on. I was a fan of coloring books when I was much younger, but I just wanted to create my own cool things. A lot more so to escape a troubled and tumultuous childhood. Small Rural towns don't provide a lot of artistic inspiration, I looked to comic books for both inspiration and escape. I had this one issue of Amazing Spiderman circa 1997 that I copied the pages from over and over again, getting caught dozens of times by this hellish Social Studies teacher.

Yet, again my fated location didn't provide opportunities for great art supplies either. Using what i could - typically an art box kit my mom bought from the Sears Catalogue or an assortment of Crayola Markers/Crayons. Not getting a hold of a paint brush till I was twelve. Neenaw had set me up with oil painting lessons with an old, country-lady version of Bob Ross named Edith King.

From then on I attended a magnet program for the arts in High School - which afterward it was non-stop art, sketching, doodling, painting, creating.

What have been some of your main sources of inspiration?

My grandmother played a major role. Not just in the facilitation and access to the arts - but in a love of color and making your own thing. She always added a bit of her own personal flare or touch to everything she owned: clothes, furniture, home and so forth. Creativity was something you lived not just did.

Of course, my favorite teachers - with few exceptions - were my art teachers. I had some amazing, and patient, professors while attending Northern Kentucky University (NKU). At that time, I was very interested in graffiti artists - mainly mural and poster work. I was in college during the early days of GIANT by OBEY/Shepard Fairey and Banksy, but it was Sam Flores out of San Francisco who got me going - he plays with a lot of confluence between humans and animals, touches of his Asian-American roots aesthetic.

Overall my love of comic books and graphic novels opened up the desire to be a comic book artist in my own right. I was a fan of mainstream names for sure - but it was the one-off Superman/Batman stories that grabbed my eye, those with unique artist/writer mashups. Frank Quitely & Grant Morrison for one - their work on All-Star Superman and New X-men was phenomenal. It was the art of David Mack in Kabuki and Daredevil (also an NKU Alum) that got me on the style of work I aspired to make - watercolors, ink washes, and just a free style of art. It was because of him I wished to attend NKU itself. More recently, finding Rafael Grampa as a newer artist I am inspired by. (Frank Miller's DK is a must)

My travels to the Middle East and connection to Judaism has played a role in my work. Religious imagery and subjects; and an eye for the architecture. There is a lot of color palette, iconography, and lighting being used in all kinds of interesting ways in religion. I have fun combining it with surreal subjects to add this holy aspect of the scene.

My other Artist inspirations: Winsor McCay, Geoff Darrow J.M.W. Turner, William Stanley Haseltine.

Lastly, music - I grew up with an 80's mom who loved Fleetwood Mac, Prince, Robert Palmer, and Madonna - with a grunge rock brother to follow. I feed off a lot of visually strong artists these days - Arcade Fire - Queens of the Stoneage, The Decemberists, TV on the Radio.

What’s your purpose as an artist?

I always baffled my art teachers when I would explain that my art was just for fun. It was difficult for me to express my feelings through art that read well to others. Art's purpose for me was an escape, something that doesn't exist, a new idea or place. Away from life.

The want to tell a narrative stems from the dream to be a comic book artist, but I want my viewers to come up with their own narratives. I want it to be a snapshot of a moment or from another world that has different stories to tell. Much of my art is derived from an idea I had about a comic book series that went from conceptual character to a series of mutated vegetation.

Art is definitely therapy or a healthy distraction for me. I wear my emotions on my sleeve, painting it down helps properly express myself. Diverting that energy into something I control, followed by a sense of accomplishment. There is nothing like having a finished piece(s) having been made during a time of turmoil or emotional distress. I am one who thrives in chaos and under pressure. It took my mind of my deployment to Afghanistan, a small sketchbook and plethora of sharpies.

What would you recommend to other artists that seek for inspiration?

Don't live life as an artist, live life through the eyes of an artist. Even if your purpose in life is to be an artist/creative/visual story teller, life doesn't always call for paint or pen. You have to be in the moment in-order to enjoy it; that enables you to take the full experience and translate it on paper/canvas with that much more vigor. But always bring something to take notes with - I have mountains of notebooks from my military days that I jotted all my ideas for work and comics, it kept my creative side engaged while I did my job at the same time.

For me - the experiences I had where I couldn't be knee deep in art are what defined me as a person, later deriving what I learned from those experiences to my art. From the Army I understood that if you want to succeed you have to lay those pounds of flesh down - special forces guys are good because they dedicate their lives to being proficient with their craft. If you want to be a big bad artist, you have to start somewhere, from one sketch a day to one sketch an hour. No one starts out as good artists, even those with natural talent, only that can carry them so far.

Curating your Instagram is a good way to have a non-stop flow of inspiration. Follow new and up-coming artists to see what the trends are. Follow artists who do the kind of art you wish you could, they share techniques and advice. Follow other visually strong people, not just the popular people. Don't follow artists who have more photos of them "thinking of the next big piece" or have huge numbers of followers with very little work to show.

If you are nervous about a new medium but dying to dry it out, do an experimental phase with it. Grab your favorite CMY relative hues, just the basic colors Blue Red Yellow even, plus a black of the same medium. This is a low cost investment. Use the colors in the new medium to create small pieces in your style and usual subjects. Experiment with techniques, tricks, and process. If you like the results or feel the potential - then grab a few more basic colors. The scary thing about new mediums is that artists feel like we have to take a header into full kits - when just the basics are good enough.

Embrace your fear of all things in the creative world - for those who are afraid of using colors there are those afraid to use black in their work. For those who are afraid of putting their work in shows there are those who are afraid of going bigger with their work. We learn more from our mistakes than our successes, if art was so easy of a win - every five-year old kid that parents say could do a Jackson Pollack would be rolling in Instagram fame.

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