Series J 0020 - 2207 - Frank Ordaz
- 3 years ago
Colour in Your Life featured artist Frank Ordaz appeared on Colour In Your Life Season Twenty Two (22).
Read a little bit about the artist here, and support our site by joining and watching the episode below.
Frank’s story really starts in East L.A. His bedroom was in a small living room and he was awakened one evening to shouts below the family house. As he looked out he saw two men fighting with chains. Frank was shocked and repelled by his environment. His backyard was dusty dirt with a tree that bore no fruit. His most vivid escape was when he saw a vine flower and remembers bees swarming around the petals getting drunk on pollen. It was then that Frank decided he too wanted to feast on something beautiful and nourishing. If he was to sit on a shrink’s couch he would say that Art probably saved his life and gave him a traditional healthy escape from the ugliness that he saw. Frank remembers someone giving him a set of casein paints when he was ten, because they saw him drawing all the time with cheap pencils. He painted his mother looking into a mirror while touching her face as she noticed her wrinkles. People made a fuss about it when Frank entered the painting in a local show. If not for the encouragement of so many people like his parents who believed in him, Frank would probably be a machinist like his father. Painting is really the only passion that ever made him want to get out of bed and do something significant and meaningful. Frank Ordaz studied with a portrait master during his teens and one day he met an old salty California Plein Air painter named Sam Hyde Harris. When he stepped into Sam’s darkened living room he was seated on a worn sunken couch with a stick of tobacco in his mouth. Behind him hung a Saturday Evening Post original oil painting by Norman Rockwell. It was signed “to my good friend Sam”. It filled Frank with a sense of calling and purpose and he was hooked.
When you’re a poor kid your ticket out of poverty is usually Sports, Education or the Arts. Frank’s dad was a semi pro boxer, but Frank wasn’t a strong kid, so he started getting into drawing and thought that if he could keep drawing he could make it in the world. Frank was fortunate enough to have a father who appreciated art and valued the arts. His mother did too, and it was a real gift from God. Frank’s parents have always supported him. He has heard other artists complain that their family argued against a career in Art but he has never heard this from his parents. Frank was also told by them that he had a gift from God and that he should pursue and hone his talent. By the time Frank was 7, 8 or 9, he had already decided in his head that he was going to pursue art. Frank has been persevering and abiding ever since.
Frank Ordaz never thought the "Artist Statement " was a big deal until he had to find his voice as an artist. Certain subject matter and places attract him over and over again. Why? And who and what are his influences, and how has that sh
Read a little bit about the artist here, and support our site by joining and watching the episode below.
Frank’s story really starts in East L.A. His bedroom was in a small living room and he was awakened one evening to shouts below the family house. As he looked out he saw two men fighting with chains. Frank was shocked and repelled by his environment. His backyard was dusty dirt with a tree that bore no fruit. His most vivid escape was when he saw a vine flower and remembers bees swarming around the petals getting drunk on pollen. It was then that Frank decided he too wanted to feast on something beautiful and nourishing. If he was to sit on a shrink’s couch he would say that Art probably saved his life and gave him a traditional healthy escape from the ugliness that he saw. Frank remembers someone giving him a set of casein paints when he was ten, because they saw him drawing all the time with cheap pencils. He painted his mother looking into a mirror while touching her face as she noticed her wrinkles. People made a fuss about it when Frank entered the painting in a local show. If not for the encouragement of so many people like his parents who believed in him, Frank would probably be a machinist like his father. Painting is really the only passion that ever made him want to get out of bed and do something significant and meaningful. Frank Ordaz studied with a portrait master during his teens and one day he met an old salty California Plein Air painter named Sam Hyde Harris. When he stepped into Sam’s darkened living room he was seated on a worn sunken couch with a stick of tobacco in his mouth. Behind him hung a Saturday Evening Post original oil painting by Norman Rockwell. It was signed “to my good friend Sam”. It filled Frank with a sense of calling and purpose and he was hooked.
When you’re a poor kid your ticket out of poverty is usually Sports, Education or the Arts. Frank’s dad was a semi pro boxer, but Frank wasn’t a strong kid, so he started getting into drawing and thought that if he could keep drawing he could make it in the world. Frank was fortunate enough to have a father who appreciated art and valued the arts. His mother did too, and it was a real gift from God. Frank’s parents have always supported him. He has heard other artists complain that their family argued against a career in Art but he has never heard this from his parents. Frank was also told by them that he had a gift from God and that he should pursue and hone his talent. By the time Frank was 7, 8 or 9, he had already decided in his head that he was going to pursue art. Frank has been persevering and abiding ever since.
Frank Ordaz never thought the "Artist Statement " was a big deal until he had to find his voice as an artist. Certain subject matter and places attract him over and over again. Why? And who and what are his influences, and how has that sh