Collage Abstract Artist
Mikel Frank
Of Charlotte North Carolina
Collage Abstract Artist Mikel Frank’s ArtPop billboard painting,
“Let the Sunshine”,
48’ x 14’
is up in Charlotte, NC area for the 2021 year.
Originally hailing from the New York City Metropolitan area,
he now teaches art and is involved in collaborative projects in North Carolina.
His studio practice is thriving and his newly developed Zoom series,
“Painters on Painting”
along with his painting partner,
Gerard Amsellem,
is establishing a presence.
The next Zoom discussion will be on
May 20, 2021
and will be featuring the work and life of
Mark Rothko
to be announced at
Maplewood Library
website
“Frags from Carl Heyward, Madeleine Wories, Isabel Ruiz Perdiguero, Spain, Helen Osfwerstrom, Sweden,
Faserhaft Judith Pauly Bender, Germany, Syporca Whandall. This piece has the most frags from different artists in different places than any I have made.
And it’s all free.
Sold: In the Collection of
Mark and Julie Mintz, Fanwood, NJ”
There are many levels of meaning to an artist’s work and there are many reasons why an artist makes art. There are also artists, works of art, and creative endeavors, which have no evident meaning. But, that doesn’t make them any less valuable or less essential.
The act of painting and creating is something that is in my nature.
I am happiest when I’m doing it.
When I am in the “zone” there is nothing quite like it.
It may be the only time that I am truly in the moment, the present moment.
Like the Abstract Expressionists, my work is mostly about process and spontaneity.
I don’t plan or do sketches before I start making a painting or collage. It is a dialogue, reactive and emotional. I make a mark or glue down an image or shape, then respond to it and make another mark that helps support the creation of the overall work. It is similar to call and response or improvisation. It is important to realize, however, that I am constantly using my knowledge of the elements, principles, and
the vocabulary of art: line, shape, form, color, value, space, etc. are essential to how I construct my work.
Some of my pieces are done with a medium known as encaustic.
I embed images into a layer of molten wax to create a kind of narrative using collage elements. At times I go purely abstract using non-objective forms and shapes to create a “picture” based on my own personal sense of where things should be compositionally and aesthetically. Other times I create narrative arranging found images from different sources juxtaposing them in order to create a psychological allusion or a suggestive symbolism or metaphor.
“There are 23 reasons for everything.
The number 23 is a special number in my life.
With Frags from Helen S. Cohen”
Collaboration is an important part of my art-making process as well.
I enjoy working with other artists to create artworks that literally feed off of the creative energy or vision of someone else. It can be cathartic and inspirational. It forces me to see things differently. It creates a third artist whose presence would not exist without the other artists’ creative vision.
This is my experience with my painting partner
Gerard Amsellem
and with
Global Art Project.
Painting for me is an expression of what is going on in my life.
It is not translation it is interpretation and reaction. It takes many forms and uses many techniques and processes to communicate my vision. My mission is to communicate a visual language through imagery, expression, and form, which has at its core a reflection of my aesthetic and the history of where it came from.
1 thought on “Collage Abstract Artist Mikel Frank”
Congrats Mikel Frank The billboard looks amazing