Frank Strasser Reflects the Light and Fun of Venice.
By Greta Cobar
It’s an inescapable magnetic attraction between Venice and those who have answered their calling towards creativity. Sooner or later, in the realms of time and space, they find each other, and then, as in the case of Frank Strasser, his canvas explodes with color.
“I love the challenge of sitting down with a naked, blank canvas and giving birth to another world,” Strasser told the Beachhead. (Read the interview...)
It’s an inescapable magnetic attraction between Venice and those who have answered their calling towards creativity. Sooner or later, in the realms of time and space, they find each other, and then, as in the case of Frank Strasser, his canvas explodes with color.
“I love the challenge of sitting down with a naked, blank canvas and giving birth to another world,” Strasser told the Beachhead.
After visiting nine countries throughout Europe over a few months, Strasser came to Venice in ’79 to “do for the Venice Canals something similar to what Monet did for the French landscape,” he said.
Drawing inspiration from the European museums and nature itself, Strasser’s paintings came to life when he came to Venice. “Venice was and is one of my biggest influences because of its free spirit, the realm of possibilities, the eclectic mix of people, the zest for life, and the fun. Venice is what I exhale as an artist,” Strasser said.
Having lived in the canals since ’79, it’s not surprising that most of his paintings feature the canals with the old-school, small cottages. Some paintings are serene, with just a landscape and maybe a sunset, while others are jam-packed with as many goofy folks as one could fit on a canvas. The Eclectic Avenue piece pictured on the first page, one of his few that does not feature either the canals or the ocean, depicts some of the characters in the mayhem of Venice: hippies and whores, a rollerblader with a snake around her neck, musicians, body-builders, a couple into BDSM, another couple filming porn, Republicans holding a gun, and the ever-present homeless person, amongst many others. The one on the right depicts the serenity of Venice, instead.
