We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Frankie Greco a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Frankie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I knew I wanted to be a professional artist in like 7th grade. Even before that, I would draw, but in 7th grade is when you start doin the, ” what do what to do when you grow up” type homework. I remember it well. I even wrote I want to be an artist in my middle school yearbook.

This didn’t really kick off until I was much older, however. The high school I went to was fantastic, but it didn’t have any art programs or classes I could learn from. It wasn’t until I started junior college that I was able to take some courses like, life drawing and advertising design. Needless to say, I was behind the curve. I thought the other students were much better, and because of that, and life’s roller coasters, I stopped drawing all together. I stopped for about 15 to 20 years. In fact, I had forgotten that it was even a thing.

I didn’t get back into it until much later when I was trying to bond with my then, 10 year old son. We decided that we were going to make a comic strip called, It’s Milo. It’s Milo was about this laid back blues cat named Milo that had a really cavalier/sarcastic answer about everything. It was like Garfield meets Cheers, and it didn’t matter how dire the situation, Milo always had a sarcastic response. There were no color lines with this character, I really liked it because I could identify with him. My son and I would crack up at some of the characters we would come up with.

This eventually led to me painting for the first time, and so on and so on. I was hooked, and it was a wrap. But unfortunately, ol’ Milo got put on the shelf, and is still a work in progress.

Frankie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a Los Angeles/ IE based conceptual abstract painter with a BFA from California State University of Long Beach. While listening to music, I laydown the composition for my paintings, often inventing languages, people, shapes and colors that I see from the music. I try to answer the question, what does music look like?.

Ultimately my paintings are a continued exploration. I can identify myself through my work and my paintings are intended to be fun.

I got into all of this because I love it, and I actively practice because I have a need to create. As far as the business aspect of it goes is, I usually sale works though word of mouth or through social media. Sometimes I have to go out and get it through art submissions and things of that nature, but I have been very fortunate to have many people support me…like local artist type stuff.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Even among my art accolades, I don’t know if there is a particular goal or mission per se. I do feel however that when a person discovers their vocation in life it because paramount that they react to it. This art thing has led me to college, meeting my wife, a house and 3 children. I don’t know where it is going from here, but it seems that somehow it was predestined that I continue this creative journey. I will also say, and I can only speak for myself; An artist creating is like air you need to breathe. I don’t think I’m completely happy unless I’m in the studio.

In order to create, however, you have to have financial freedom, or at least your work has to pay for the essentials that you and your family need. Most artists nowadays have a 9 to 5 that supports this, and I’m no different. The old guard of gallery representation may still apply as a monetary avenue, but nowadays you just have to hustle to get your art out there whether its via social media or word of mouth.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I feel like a lot of society may not understand the importance of art. I feel like its just as important as any other discipline. One can argue that contemporaries, Picasso was just as important as Albert Einstein. I feel like nowadays this has been lost in this quick result society. Lets support the arts in school. Lets support the arts as a legitimate career path. Also many do not support local artists, but lets take that further. For example, why not buy a piece of art from an art walk to put in your living room as apposed to buying a remade kitsch piece from T.J. Maxx. It’s all a changing of a mind state, and changing the paradigm really.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/frastamon