Meet Frank Hermann: boldjournal.com

Frank Hermann, Buoyant-4, 40 x 40”, Acrylic on canvas, 2016

Read Online: https://boldjourney.com/meet-frank-herrmann/

We recently connected with Frank Herrmann and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Frank, great to have you with us today and excited to have you  share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking  with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and  more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all  stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your  journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.

I have been painting professionally for the past fifty plus years. Yes, there  have been moments where I had a lack of direction in the paintings or I had  come to the end of series and was wondering what I should be doing.  Thoughts of just quitting? Yes! But that’s not who I am. It took me some  time to realize that it was possible that no one really cared if I was working  in the studio. Of course this is not true. Somehow that was a freeing  moment.  

 In those moments of transition I would just do whatever came into to play,  work with whatever I thought about as a way to work myself out of the  painting doldrums. One example of this was that I would make up vertical  bar code striped paintings for family members connecting the strips as  letters where it was needed to create their name.  

After reading and researching about the Asmat headhunter woodcarvers of  New Guinea I asked myself this question, How can the Asmat woodcarver  and I meet in the space, the place of painting? I thought this was the  craziest thought, but it persisted and haunted me. It was then I realized that  I needed to learn and experience the significant motifs, maybe through  tracery, that the woodcarvers had gleaned from the their environment. So I  pursued this by making rubbings of two Asmat shields I was able to  purchase through a project grant, shrunk wrapped them and made  rubbings on mulberry paper which were then invested into the paintings as  collage with acrylic medium. So what I do is give myself permission to take  the RISK. Be ruthless in the pursue of your work. It’s not always what a  painting should be, but what the painting could be.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should  folks know about you and what you do?

I think of myself as a professional painter (although I never announce  myself as one unless I’m pressured). I am lucky enough to have been  engaged with pursuing painting for the last fifty plus years. I try to maintain a schedule for working in the studio as much as I can. You can  find my work and more about my work on the following sites. 

www.Frank-Herrmann-Art.com 

www.OAC.Ohio.gov/Resouces/Ohio-Arist-Registry. Search by typing in  Frank Herrmann under painting. 

Instagram @f.herrmann 

My paintings are represented by the Eisele Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio and  by the URSA Gallery, Bridgeport, CT. 

There are two exhibitions schedule for 2025. 

Terrains Traversed, Paintings from 1976-2025, a survey exhibition of my  large scale paintings, will open March 14, 2025 at the Summit Galley, The  Summit Hotel, Cincinnati, Ohio 

In Ohio, a group show curated by Char Norman, of Ohio artists is  scheduled for April 26- July 3, 2025 at the Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery,  Columbus, Ohio

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or  areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What  advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of  how they can best develop or improve on these?

1. Professional artists work hard. So, go to work! Try asking yourself what  you want from your work. Try making a list of goals without making ones  that cannot be accomplished within reason. Pursue those goals. Network!  Go to openings. Talk to artists you don’t know. I have talked to artists on  Social Media platforms I didn’t know and have commented on their work  when compelled to do so. This has been met with generosity from those  artists. When I was teaching I have called artists to invite them as visiting  artists. I still hear from some of them.

2. Be generous. I have been lucky enough to have met many artists who are now close friends. They are generous with themselves and in their support of me. And have been able to reciprocate that generosity. That has been a healthy part of my painting practice. These exchanges have meant a lot to me and it will be meaningful for you and your career as an artist.3. Be professional in your dealings as an artist in everything you do whether it is dealing with a gallery, exhibiting, or in the presentation of your work. Consider that everything you do professionally is a reflection on practice, Keep your email lists, resume, images of your work, website and anything associated with your work up to date. This should be done monthly!

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend  that decade? 

I would like to answer more than one of the topics. I have been so lucky to  have had wonderful undergrad professors. You can find a tribute to one of  my professors,Leo Fernadez, if you go deep into my instagram feed  @f.herrmann. There you will read what Leo invested in me.  

I have also had artists who I admire visit my studio and have had  wonderful conversations with Sam Gilliam, Kevin Cole, John Walker and  the poet/novelist Ross Field, Philip Guston’s friend. Read Ross Feld’s book  Guston in Time. It is the letters back and forth between Feld and Guston.  The conversations are priceless 

In the 80’s I saw a Bonnard show at the Philips Collection in Washington,  DC. In the catalog from the show were printed pages from Bonnard’s  sketchbook. There is an entry by Bonnard where he enters a quote by  Delacroix “one can never paint violently enough”. This quote made me  come out of my chair and has stayed with me. I believe this statement is  about using ones skills to take risks. Doing whatever it takes to push the  work further and being relentless.

Read any interview or watch a YouTube video where Philip Guston talks about painting and if his retrospect is near you, go and spend some time  with his work. 

The book Asmat Art, which my archeologist son handed me in the late 90’s,  launched ten years of paintings based on the readings, research and  conversations I had with collectors and explorers who traveled throughout  Asmat about the Asmat culture Irian Jaya. The paintings resultant of my  engagement with the research of the Asmat culture are on my website and  Instagram feed. 

This brings me to my currents situation. I retired from teaching  undergraduate and graduate painting in the School of Art, College of  Design, Architecture, Art and Planning at the University of Cincinnati after  forty one years in 2014. I am a full-time painter working steadily in the  studio. I have been showing my work at the Indian Hill Gallery, The Marta  Hewett Gallery and the Weston Gallery in the Arronoff Center, Cincinnati,  Ohio.  

I have had a residencies at Castle Cemelice, Cemelice, Czech Republic  sponsored by the Ohio Art Council and the Center of Contemporary Art in  Prague and all At The Studios, Mass Moca, North Adams, Ma. I have also  traveled to Croatia , Montenegro, Albany, and Greece, and Spanish Wells  in the Bahamas in 2019.  

In June of 2023 at the age of 78 I had a knee replacement, which went well  and at the time was only taking eye drops for glaucoma, By late August I  became unfocused, was loosing weight and was diagnosed with stage four  pancreatic cancer. I have an excellent oncology team and my oncologist is  a leading researcher for pancreatic cancer in Cincinnati, so since the start  of my chemo treatments and clinical trial drug study my tumor has been  reduced in size, my cancer numbers have been reduced significantly and  my labs have been excellent. I am a lucky person. I treat my tumor mentally  by visualizing violent scenes from movies, for example, the chipper scene  from Fargo. I tell my oncologist I refuse to let this blip in my health get in  way of my painting. I am writing this on 12/5/2024 at 79 while hooked up to  my portable chemo pump. It’s so you know I’m not giving in and I am doing  everything I can to get stronger to live. TO PAINT!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.Frank-Herrmann-Art.com

• Instagram: @f.herrmann

• Facebook: Frank Herrmann

• Linkedin: Frank Herrmann