Lori Franz resides in Midtown Sacramento.  She is one of 16 resident artists at The I Street Art Studios Sacramento.  Her works are on display at The I Street Art Studios Sacramento every 2nd Saturday Art Walk between 4-9 pm, by appointment and at art events around the city.  Her primary media are Acrylics and Watercolor.   Her expressionist style is a result of a collaboration between her brush and her brain.

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Artist Statement

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I have loved art and design my whole life.  I grew up  in an art deprived rural environment and was lucky enough to  become educated and to have a very rewarding and stimulating career as a university researcher, educator and administrator.   Upon my retirement, I relocated to Sacramento and immediately began to pursue my long stifled desire to make art.  

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My background in math and physics has shaped my view of the world as has my newfound interest in photography.  My  absence of  art training has allowed me a freedom of experimentation and a the lack of traditional constraints when pursuing a painting.  Although my early work shows  experimentation in the wonder of new pursuit, I am rapidly developing a bold expressionistic style.  

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Some Thoughts on Making Art

 

Relatively soon after I began to paint,  I visited the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art.   And there I learned what I wanted from my art.   There,  on on the hallway walls on specialty wallpaper was scrawled  in elementary school punishment style were these words:

“I will not make any more boring art”

“I will not make any more boring art”

“I will not make any more boring art”

“I will not make any more boring art”

“I will not make any more boring art”

“I will not make any more boring art”…

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Although I feel I cannot always live up to this mantra, in every work it is certainly  my goal to be original with free expression.  Unless otherwise noted, I paint from sketch, my personal photograph, or from my inner muse.   I create my images without projection.  And I paint over the boring.

 

I know that I do not aspire to do representational art.  The camera can transcribe reality very nicely and Photoshop and its friends can add anything needed to to make reality more real.  My favorite art mentor says we have the choice to transcribe, translate, or transcend.   The trip to transcendence is not easy but the recognition of one’s own boring art is easy.  

 

On Sharing Art

 

The task of pleasing oneself and  denying the boring is complicated.  You strive to please yourself, create excitement and drama, to avoid the staid.  But, at the same time, you work to please others.  To have them visit your studio and stay awhile.  To have them ponder your work. To have them tell you which ones are their favorites.  And from that you learn that everyone has different standards of art.  Almost every work is a favorite to someone.    So the secret is to respect those who come to enjoy  our art and let them make the rules of what speaks to them. At the same time, to share work that tells a story,  romances the eye or makes one savor the pride of creation.

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Enjoy my work and the journey of my art.  

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