Becky Franco
“I try to find my truth by drawing from self-examination, observation of everyday experiences and the landscapes of my environment. As an Artist, I am always open to inspiration and the influence that popular American culture exerts on me. I paint the everyday and the commonplace objects that surround me in my life and those for which I have a particular fascination.”
“I meander in this world as a critical realist observing our society. I take pleasure in surveying the possessions found in the interior of homes revealing everything about its residents. Monitoring the values that make up our society.” - Becky Franco
Becky Franco was born in Havana, Cuba, but had to leave as a young child. Art provided her with an avenue to express herself, a means to acclimate to the cultural changes she would experience in the United States. Franco graduated with a Fine Arts degree in Painting with Honors from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and later attained a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from Queens College, New York. Living in New York in the 70s, she was very much influenced by the Photo Realist movement. She became the first female billboard artist to join the Sign and Pictorial Display Union and worked for the largest outdoor advertising company in the world at the time, Foster and Kleiser. Franco then painted large and real for fifteen years, enjoying the scale and the popular subject matter of our culture delivered to the public in the form of gigantic billboard bulletins. The content of Franco’s paintings grapple with issues of consumerism and status, with an emphasis on aesthetic beauty. Franco’s main goals at this time are to create good paintings and exhibit her work.