About Frank Trocino

Frank Trocino Biography

Frank Trocino was born in New York and 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.

Studio Avanti was well known for their concept design work as well as their artistic rendering and illustrations. It was here that Trocino started using digital design tools and CAD which has influenced his current style and technique.

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.  

The most obvious influence in his style are cubism and mid century modern architecture and illustration. Trocino is drawn to cubism because it represents freedom and the ability to look at things not so much as they appear, but what they represent. You can see elements of Gris and Jean Metzinger in his work. Also evident is the style of the great magazine illustrators of the 50’s and 60’s like Coby Whitmore and Jon Whitcomb.

 

3 Things you may not know about the artist, Frank Trocino

The first thing you may not know about the artist, Frank Trocino is……

I eat peanut butter almost every single day. Seriously. Not proud of this and it seems sort of immature. Usually on crackers but sometimes right out of the jar. They probably make a pill for this…

The second thing you may not know about the artist, Frank Trocino is……

Music plays an important role in art and in life. For example when I think back to a specific time such as the summer of 1975, the summer after graduation, I can recall the songs that were playing on the radio then. In this particular case the three that come to mind are Fame by David Bowie, Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen, and No Woman No Cry by Bob Marley. I’m not sure if I paint while listening to music or if I listen to music while I paint.

The third and final thing you may not know about the artist, Frank Trocino is……

I have a condition called synesthesia (not to worry, neither fatal or even debilitating). 

Let’s get the dictionary definition out of the way: Synesthesia - a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. 

So, it could be color and smell, taste and sound…..In my particular case it’s called grapheme-color synesthesia. Numbers and colors are linked. When I see a color I automatically think of it’s paired number and vice versa.  In my case, it’s a moving target where the color/number combination will change over years, I guess. Except the number 7 has always been purple as far back as I can remember. Currently the brown, orange, reds are 3, 4, 5 and 6 and the blue greens are 8, 9 and 10.

One day while sitting in my studio, I decided to add together the numbers corresponding to the 4 or 5 dominant colors of each of my paintings currently on the walls. The total of 28 occurred over and over again. Too many times to be a coincidence. So what is so important about the number 28. I couldn’t think of anything. And then it dawned on me - my birthday is the 28th. Soooo, what does that mean? Don’t really know. Probably nothing.

Frank Trocino Artist Statement

While my subject matter is broad and various, the two most dominant subjects are 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.

The three historical artists who have had the most influence on my style and my development as an artist are Stuart Davis, Jean Metzinger and Wassily Kandinsky.  Davis was an early American modernist who was doing Pop Art style Cubism back in the 1920’s. He is not well known but his work was way ahead of his time.

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.

Kandinsky was a Russian painter and is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstraction. He worked with geometric forms, lines and colors. Before becoming an artist, he was a successful lawyer and teacher. And if that was not enough, according to contemporaries, he was a most agreeable human being - charismatic, kind, and well-liked.

"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 and 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 wired.