Meet Frankie Greco

Today we’d like to introduce you to Frankie Greco.

Hi Frankie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Quick Shout out to my wife, Brittany. Last time we left off we were expecting a newborn, and I believe I announced it first on VoyageLA. In May of last year, my wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

Look, you have to work hard to get anywhere. Those are the breaks, man. There have been times my motor was really running and I created a lot. I’m fortunate for those times because they make up for those times when I wasn’t in the creative right space. My story- Many dominoes had to fall for me to get here, and by no stretch have I made it.

Similar to a lot of people I guess, as a child, I had always wanted to be an artist. For example, in high school, all my notes had doodles of value shifts, fingers, and a lot of eyeballs. Lots and Lots of eyeballs! Many years had passed and life had caught up with me. From having a son at 22 to working multiple jobs, I had forgotten all about art. I had a vision somewhere in my early 30’s, and it’s important to point out, for many in my same shoes, that it’s never too late to realize your direction. That vision gave me focus and inspired me to go back to college and earn a BFA in drawing and painting from the California State University of Long Beach, and I’ve been painting ever since. I always find it interesting to look at old drawings, or even in my 8th-grade yearbook I wrote, “I want to be an artist when I grow up,” Those types of things confirm that art has been my trajectory my entire life.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Life is a roller coaster for everyone, and for me, some of the decisions I have made in life have gotten in my own way, the important thing is to learn from them. I was brought up with modest means. My dad put a roof over our heads, and we had a great family and good schools growing up. I didn’t get into trouble, but by no means did we have any expendable income, with a family of 8. We were just getting by. Funny story, being an undersized kid (late bloomer) growing up, I was able to fit into the same hand-me-down chords for multiple years. I’ll never forget it. They were these ugly white chords with flare legs.

Good thing for me, rolling and tucking up your pant legs was stylish in the mid-’80s, if not I would have blown my cover. I paired those chords with a levis denim jacket I found on the playground. I guess the point I am trying to make is as I got older, and as the decisions I made became more important, especially financially, I didn’t have a safety net or sponsor to fall back on. To use Robert Frost, “I took the one less traveled by, and that had made all the difference.” It truly did. I had to work hard and get creative to be where I am today.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I consider myself somewhat of a physical conceptual abstract artist/multimedia artist/muralist. Fine art would be my thing. I guess I’m most known for those crazy cool music characters that I invent in my paintings, and of course, a lot of colors. I use music to lay out my compositions. After that is just solving the puzzle until it’s done. My subject matter is music, identity, and social issues, and how they all correlate.

As for my work’s greatest achievements, I can’t really point to a painting or event that I would be most proud of. I’m just thankful for the many things and opportunities that I’ve earned, but as a typical artist, I guess, I’m never really satisfied. Things are never really perfect, and as I have highs in my plateaus in life, they’re short-lived, and it’s time to move on to the next goal.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Well, let’s just say, that surreal movie that you thought could never happen because of our supreme technology and medicine, happened. I learned that life is short and fragile, and at the end of the day, I am super fortunate in more ways than I can count.

Contact Info:

• Website: frankiegreco.com
• Instagram: @Frastamon

Image Credits
Brittany Greco and Elizabeth Munzon