Website: https://frankcampionart.com
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I grew up in New York City and my mother and father made sure my sister and I, were immersed in the all creative culture the city had to offer. I remember going to the Museum of Modern Art with my mom when I was maybe 10 years old. We were standing in front of a giant painting of the United States by Jasper John. I thought it was the coolest thing in the place. I also remember seeing lots of adults wandering the museum looking at the paintings and it occurred to me that art was something grown-ups took seriously. That it was important.The idea of being an artist, a painter, was planted right there.
I painted through the rest of my school years into college graduating with a BFA from Harvard and a minor in hanging around at the Rhode Island School of Design. I started my serious art life with a handful of group shows in and around Boston. Most notably, I was selected for Boston Now: Abstract Painting at The Institute of Contemporary Art. Subsequently, I found gallery representation, had a number of successful solo shows, and was selected for a number of group shows at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Danforth Museum, and the Currier Gallery among others.The Boston Museum of Fine Arts acquired one of my paintings and I was represented in a wide variety of private as well as corporate collections.
At age 35, I then had what can only be described as a lover’s quarrel with the art world. Money and motivation got a bit tangled up and, to make a long story short, I became disillusioned with it all. As well as I seemed to be doing, I didn’t own a house, a car or even have a health plan. I owed the art store a lot of money and the lease on my studio was about to lapse.
Finally, I put the whole catastrophe in moth balls and started a career in advertising. This ultimately brought me to North Carolina. After some 30 years in the business, I retired to take care of my first wife who had become ill with some kind of strange neurological disorder. One day, she asked me what I was going to do with the rest of my retirement. I kind of shrugged it off, but she pushed a bit and told me to try making art again. She had known me during my art years in Boston and had been my biggest fan. After she died, I cleared out a large room in the lower part of the house, bought some fine art paper and a bunch of pencils and erasers. I didn’t know whether I had the mojo to even do this, but with a heavy heart, I was determined to make a good-faith effort and started making some simple drawings and collages.
A year later, I built a 1500 square foot studio off the back of the house and started painting again in earnest. For the last 10-12 years, I have been working away. I had been successful enough in the business world that I no longer had to support myself through the sale of art. Free from that constraint, I now paint for an audience of one and have no quarrel with the art world.
