36x42 "Quilt"
“Do artists have a choice but to create? A choice not to express what
lives inside them? Would it even be possible to deny such energy its
rightful path and still maintain one’s sanity? There is no choosing, we
are but receivers of some incredible signal, or unaware miners of
hidden treasures. Ours is only to live, and to create.”
So says Frank Strunk III, a self-taught, American artist with a studio in Florida.
Born in a suburb of Washington, D.C., in 1964, Frank, an industrial aesthete,
has developed a signature style that has earned him accolades as one of our
nation’s most innovative, rising artists. In Frank’s world, acid-washed galvanized
steel, sheet metal, rusted nails, tools, working parts and gears are the conduits
of his art. “My work is a fertile collusion of the rigidity and order of geometry and
the organic dance and palette of rust,” he says. Described as ironic, witty, fun,
spiritual, imaginative, kinetic, unexpected and truly original, his industrial-infused
art has traversed and intersected with the fine arts, functional art, wearable art, interior
decor and architecture. Frank‘s art speaks about issues that affect us on levels
that we don't always look at with the clearest of eyes: Work, religion,
relationships, power – all of these loaded subjects are the focus of his work.
Covertly spiritual and intentionally philosophical, Frank Strunk uses his background,
skill and love for all things old and mechanized to craft art that speaks in metaphor.
Frank believes that as a society, our careers have taken precedence over
our “selves” making our lives little more than a mechanism of a larger, thoughtless,
cold “machine.” By dissecting this culture, his art reveals the ways we have stifled
self-expression and how our lives have become disconnected. “My voice as an
artist speaks primarily through the industrial aesthetic. I have always been
fascinated by old machines, motors, mechanisms, and rusted metal. I try to
take the functions of these machines and pose them against the functions of
our lives. I feel, as a byproduct of our culture, we spend far too much time as
willing participants in this machine, and as a result we miss out on richer, fuller
lives," he says. He wants his art to serve a higher purpose – perhaps act as an
itinerary for others to discover their true path, find their soul’s purpose, to leave
the “machine” behind. “Do what you love. Live a soulful life,” says the artist.
