WILLIAM FRANK
Fine Art Portfolio
Personal Statement
I create both institutional and studio art. Although distinct, my institutional and studio works hold sway over each other. Studio investigations, more personal in nature, ensure that my public work remains personally relevant and open to alternate modes of expression. Correspondingly, the public work continually draws my personal work outwards. I have developed several diverse bodies of studio work, of which Drawn Small is the most recent. Drawn Small is an ongoing collaborative project with my wife and five children in which we investigate place, imagination, and memory. Our subjects are those that are near at hand, materials and experiences of our daily lives. For example, on one occasion we collected botanical specimens during a hike, and used them to make prints. In another instance, we made prints from our chickens’ feathers. Drawn Small begins with the conviction that these daily the world and the act of making form our imaginations and connect us to our home, land, and our community. Drawn Small includes a body of prints and drawings, an instagram gallery where we document our process, and share our work.
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Resume
EDUCATION 2011 2006
MFA, Sam Fox School of Design, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO BA, University of Dallas, Dallas, TX
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2006-Present Pincipal Designer, Emil Frei., Inc. 2018-Present Owner, Drawn Small 2017-Present Freelance Graphic Design (FigDesign) 2010-2011 Assistant, Island Press, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO EXHIBITIONS 2019 2018-2019 2011-2012 2011 2010 2006 2003
“Drawn Small,” Kirkwood Train Station, Kirkwood, MO (Solo Exhibition) “Small Works XI,” Webster Groves Library Gallery, Webster Groves, MO (Juried Group Exhibition) “Sacred Transmitted,”Beatrice M. Haggerty Gallery, University of Dallas, Irving, TX (Co-Curator) Washington University School of Law, Saint Louis, MO (Group Exhibition) University of Montevallo, Montevallo, AL (Group Exhibition) Kemper Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO (Group Exhibition) Lemp Brewery, Saint Louis, MO (Group Exhibition) Des Lee Gallery, Saint Louis, MO (Group Exhibition) University of Dallas, Irving, TX (Solo Exhibition) University of Dallas, Irving, TX (Solo Exhibition)
COMMISSIONS Current 14 etchings, SSM Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 2018-Current Author: “The Art Scrawl,” Webster-Kirkwood Times, Saint Louis, MO 2017-Current Kirkwood Arts Commissioner, Kirkwood Arts Commission, Kirkwood, MO 2019 Panel Discussion, University of Dallas, Irving, TX 2017 Presentation: Collaborating with Parish Leaders: An Artist’s Perspective, Dallas Ministry Conference, Dallas, TX 2014 Presentation: “Liturgy and Art: Understanding Sacred Windows” Mary of Nazareth Speaker Series, Cardinal Rigali Center, Saint Louis, MO Presentation: “Color in Modern Life,” Washington University in Saint Louis, Saint Louis, MO 2013 Presentation: Paper!Paper!, Friends of Dard Hunter Conference, Saint Louis, MO Attended: Paper!Paper!, Friends of Dard Hunter Conference Saint Louis, MO 2011 Workshop: Steel and Soft-ground etching, University of Montevallo, AL 2010 Attended “Equilibrium,” Southern Graphics Council Conference, Saint Louis, MO
PERSONAL STATEMENT & RESUME
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Drawn Small
Drawn Small is an ongoing collaborative project with my wife and five children in which we investigate place, imagination, and memory. Our subjects are those that are near at hand, materials and experiences that shape our daily lives. For example, on one occasion we collected botanical specimens during a hike, and used them to make Folium, a suite of prints. In another instance, we made Pluma pullus a series of prints from our chickens’ feathers. Recently, in the series Radix, we have dug up the roots from our garden’s basil plants and made prints fromt these. Drawn Small begins with the conviction that these daily the world and the act of making form our imaginations and connect us to our home, land, and our community. Drawn Small includes a body of prints and drawings, an instagram gallery (instagram@DrawnSmall) where we document our process, and share our work.
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Peter, age 5 , gathers the chicken feathers.
Ruth, age 8, pulls the first print.
DRAWN SMALL
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Folium. Soft-ground etching. 9.5 x 7.5 inches, each. 2019 6
WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Folium DRAWN SMALL
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Pluma pullus. Soft-ground etching. 7 x 5 inches, each. 2019 8
WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Pluma pullus DRAWN SMALL
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Radix basilicum. Soft-ground etching. 7 x 5 inches, each. 2019 10
WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Radix basilicum DRAWN SMALL
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Prairie Profiles
“We came with vision, but not with sight… and we’ve never known what we were doing because we’ve never known what we were undoing.” —Wendell Berry
Today the identity of the American Prairie is poised between an inherited poetic imagination and ongoing scientific preservation and conservation. Prairie Profiles is a body of work that examines this unique relationship. Each work is a specific profile of the American Prairie; some distinctly marked by scientific endeavor and others more reliant on inherited poetic notions. Taken together, these works trace a circumference at whose center is their essence.
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Herbarium (installation view). Glass, grass, wood, wire cable. 19 x 15 x variable inches. 2010
PRAIRIE PROFILES
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Out of Sight of Land. Monoprint. 48 x 80 inches. 2011
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Bottom detail
Middle detail
Top detail
Poaceae (Installation view.) Soft-ground etching. 8 x variable up to 12 feet. 2010
PRAIRIE PROFILES
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Dasystachyum. Photolithograph. 13 x 63 inches. 2010
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
PRAIRIE PROFILES
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BiFocal. Soft-ground etching. 8 x 8 inches, each. 2011.
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Reclamation. Graphite. 20 x 11 inches. 2010
PRAIRIE PROFILES
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Limens (tryptich). Soft-ground etching. 10 x 2 feet, each. 2010
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
a prairie lexicon. Artist book, etching. 6 x 13.5 inches, closed 2011.
PRAIRIE PROFILES
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Successions. Ceramic tile and glaze. Raku. 12.5 x 6.75 inches, each. 2013
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
PRAIRIE PROFILES
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Trees & Roots
Across Kansas William Stafford My Family slept those level miles but like a bell rung deep till dawn I drove down an aisle of sound nothing real but in the bell, past the town where I was born. Once you cross a land like that you own your face more: what the light struck told a self; every rock denied the rest of the world. We stopped at Sharon Springs and ate— My state still dark, my dream too long to tell.
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Landscape. Graphite. 5 x 20 inches. 2008
TREES & ROOTS
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Trees & Roots I. Etching. 5 x 5 inches. 2008
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Trees & Roots II. Etching. 6 x 4 inches. 2008
Trees & Roots III. Etching. 6 x 3 inches. 2008
Trees & Roots IV. Etching. 4.25 x 4.25 inches. 2008
TREES & ROOTS
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Eingang: The Way In
Entrance Rainer Marie Rilke Whoever you are: in the evening step out of your room, where you know everything; yours is the last house before the distant: whoever you are. With your eyes, which wearily just free themselves of the worn-out threshold, very slowly you raise one black tree and set it against the sky: slender, alone. And you’ve made the world. And it’s immense and like a word ripening in silence. And as your will reaches for its meaning, tenderly your eyes let it go…
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Artists. Graphite. 6 x 6 inches. 2006
Poets. Graphite. 6.5 x 6 inches. 2006
EINGANG: THE WAY IN
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Inscape. Intaglio. 4 x 4 inches. 2006
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Outside. Intaglio. 6.25 x 5.5 inches. 2006
Woven Center. Intaglio. 6 x 6 inches. 2006
Entangled. Intaglio. 7 x 6.75 inches. 2006
EINGANG: THE WAY IN
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Widening Circles. Intaglio. 7.5 x 5 inches. 2006
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Cascading Shapes. Intaglio. 5.75 x 5.75 inches. 2006
Overlay. Intaglio. 5.25 x 6 inches.2006
EINGANG: THE WAY IN
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Abstracts
While creating projects in response to a client’s need, often representational in nature, I find it useful to create abstract compositions. I create these works with objects and materials close at hand and they are experimental and iterative in approach. More than a mere escape from the constraints that come with commissioned designs, these studies allow me to expand my drawing approaches and maintain an openness to different modes of expression.
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Untitled. Ink, gouache, gesso on paper. 16 x 13.5 inches. 2014
ABSTRACTS
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Untitled. Ink, graphite, gesso, and gold leaf on paper. 20 x 14 inches. 2019
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Untitled. Ink, graphite, gesso, and gold leaf on paper. 20 x 14 inches. 2019
ABSTRACTS
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Untitled 1-4. Ink. Each 8.5 x 6 inches. 2016
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Untitled. Ink and gesso on drywall. 17.5 x 17.5 inches. 2013
Untitled. Ink and gesso on drywall. 17.5 x 11 inches. 2013
ABSTRACTS
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Untitled. Ink, gouache, graphite, and gesso on paper. 10 x 12 inches. 2012
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
Untitled. Ink, gouache, graphite, and gesso on paper. 10 x 12 inches. 2012
ABSTRACTS
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After...
Liturgical art requires the depiction of the human figure. When confronted with the figure of Christ in particular, I necessarily feel a deep inadequacy. Looking toward and imitating different traditions of representation fosters a more mature treatment of the subject and helps to temper this feeling. After‌ is a continuing study of the figure as depicted in a wide range of styles by masters and artists whose depictions of the human condition I find compelling. Through these studies and interpretations, I hope to lay the seeds for my own authentic depiction of the human figure and condition.
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
After Henry Moore. Ink, toner, gouache, and gesso on paper. 10.5 x 10 inches. 2014.
AFTER...
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After Hans Godfried von Stockhausen. Ink, gesso, and gouache on paper. 16.5 x 14.5 inches. 2014.
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WILLIAM FRANK | FINE ART PORTFOLIO
After Georges Roualt. Gesso and gouache on paper. 14 x 8.5 inches. 2014.
AFTER...
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