Frank Trocino

“Good art should elicit thought and emotion. It can provoke memories and events from the past or perhaps, fuel the imagination for things to come.”

Artist Bio

Frank Trocino was born in New York but his family moved to Oregon when he was 6 years old. Trocino showed an aptitude for art at the age of ten when he was asked to paint all the stage backdrops for a school play after the teachers viewed a painting he did of a giraffe in a jungle scene.

Trocino turned his interest from art to architecture although continuing his drawing and painting throughout his career as an architect. He attended the University of Oregons School of Architecture and graduated in 1985. He was the recipient of the Bartholomew Scholarship and finished his degree at the Academy of Rome in Rome Italy.

Upon graduation he moved to Los Angeles and worked for various architectural firms until starting his own practice in Pasadena. His firm, Studio Avanti, specialized in entertainment and theme park design gaining prestigious clients like Disney, Universal and Sony Entertainment.

In 2005 Trocino left Studio Avanti and concentrated on custom residential design which eventually led him to the Middle East where he worked in Saudi Arabia and Dubai on large scale residential and mixed-use projects.

Upon returning to the US in 2016, Trocino landed in Portland Oregon where he turned to art as a full time occupation. Eventually he moved to Santa Fe where he currently resides and continues making art full time.

Artist Statement

Currently, my subject matter contains two main bodies of work, couples and buildings.

I find people very interesting and the most interesting aspect is the dynamics and interaction of two people, so I find myself depicting couples as a broad subject matter. My couples work is really about epic fantasy: the layering and depth of emotion and tension. Supply me with true and complex dramas for painting and I make it untrue and then add an accent of believability.

My paintings of buildings are inspired by architecture and the built environment. As a former Architect, I think about buildings all the time. Buildings are a lot like people, each having a distinct personality. Some are brazen and loud while others are quiet and competent. Some are wallflowers, celebrities, braggarts, crude or refined, much like us.

I love cubism. I love it because, in its infancy, the Picassos, the Metzinger’s and the Gris’s met with incredible resistance. They were criticized, attacked and laughed at by critics, galleries, curators and other artists. This didn’t stop them. They persevered because they were creating from their hearts and minds.

I want my paintings to be visually delightful, intellectually stimulating, and finally to tell a good story.

Process

I first create a digital study of each piece on a tablet using the Procreate app. In the study, I try to finalize the basic composition/color direction for the work. The original is then hand painted using acrylic and collage on archival paper. The paper is laminated to a cradled wood panel and is varnished, waxed, framed and ready to hang.

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