Franca Van Allen

Instagram: francavanallen

Fish
Print
Pencils, acrylics, charcoal
12” x 9”w
$100

Small Town
Print/Collage
Acrylics
9h” x 12w
$100

To me art is doing, is exploration, art is play, it’s countless adventures.  Art is storytelling and I love a good story.  Art teaches me openness and flexibility, it teaches me to “work with it”, take a chance, take detours, learn something new.  Art refines and cultivates me.  

Growing up in Italy, I had an early exposure to the arts.  My dad, was a carpenter and a cabinet maker; he loved all the Baroque and Renaissance artists, he taught me to appreciate the beauty and craftmanship of their artwork.  Visiting castles, churches and museums was part of the art education I received in school.  Later in my life, I taught art in public schools, and I saw how it benefited my students. 

Here, at Delta College, I took three printing classes.  I love printmaking, it has opened new possibilities for my craft and it’s now a part of my creative process.  I often start my work with a printed background, before I move to drawing or painting.  Some of my prints have multiple layers of printed surfaces with patterns I create from carved lino, handmade stamps or found objects.  I prefer using is acrylic paint, although I also use inks, watercolor, pencils and markers.  

My interest in printmaking started with Rauschenberg and the purchase of a silicone plate that bypassed the need for a press.  Major influences, this past year, were: Paul Klee, for his playful approach to printmaking, Slavko Kopak for his somber art brut, Yayoi Kusama for her serial work, Jasper Jones for his intuitiveness and Javlensky for his faces/places.

My work is small and personal.  It would make me happy to know that people looking at it experience pleasure and a sense of intimacy that would make my work part of their experience and their memory.