Frank J. Stockton

Frank in his Los Angeles studio and gallery space “Nothing Special”

I’m an artist and draftsman working in Los Angeles. I run a small gallery called Nothing Special, and I also teach drawing, painting, and illustration classes at Moreno Valley College.

I grew up in a conservative area of Southern California in the 80s and 90s. My parents went through a bad-mannered divorce when I was a boy that resulted in my sisters and I moving from city to city throughout Orange County and the Inland Empire for most of the 1990’s.

I spent my senior year of high school with my nose buried in a sketchbook, trying to create a portfolio of drawings that would get me hired to draw superhero comics for Marvel or D.C. But when that didn’t pan out, I enrolled in some classes at Mt. San Jacinto College to try and gain the drawing skills that I thought would get me hired. I had no intention of pursuing a degree until meeting a couple of teachers in Community College who illuminated the door to some possible career paths. Within a few years, I found myself enrolled in the Illustration program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

Fresh after graduating from Art Center in 2005, I moved to New York to try and make a career in editorial illustration, but soon found myself completely seduced by the art in galleries and museums there. In 2012, I “retired” from my work in books and magazines and returned to Los Angeles to earn a Master’s degree in painting from UCLA. I have been exhibiting my work in art galleries ever since.

What is a typical day in the life of yourself as an artist/professor?

Oh my god, I’m so busy right now. Mondays through Thursdays are divided between teaching and painting. I spend Fridays with my 16 month-old, Grey. Saturdays are sometimes a studio day, sometimes a family day, and sometimes a gallery-viewing day, and Sundays are reserved for family time. I make time to see shows and write about art, and run a semi-public gallery called Nothing Special, which has openings every eight weeks. That might sound like a lot of responsibility, but I enjoy the fast pace.

What is your creative process?

I like to make lots of work and then aggressively edit. I go through phases where I’ll discard or destroy half of what I’ve made. I find this process allows me to stumble upon happy accidents and keeps me from being too precious about the work.

Agnes Martin once said that it’s better to be at the beach thinking about painting than to be painting while thinking about the beach. It’s important to honor both your fertile and fallow periods as an artist.

Also, learning new skills or allowing time for different creative outlets such as dance, writing, music, or sculpture can be generative.

How does your body of work relate to Suadade?

I think there’s an underlying current of saudade in my natural state of being, although I hope it’s there as a transmutation of suffering and pain into beauty.

Tell us a bit about your recent project, “Double-Jointed Spiral”

Double-Jointed Spiral is an experimental book about creative process seen through the eyes of a painter. I spent over a year recording thoughts, conversations, and ideas onto my typewriter and then about two months compiling and editing them into a cohesive set of ideas that would compliment a show of paintings that were displayed at DENK gallery in Downtown Los Angeles.

I think of Double-Jointed Spiral as a book rather than a zine, though it is produced on a photocopier. It’s comprised of five chapters organized by color, and held together by paper clips. What I like about that particular feature is how the clips make the book interactive, because once they are removed by the reader, the chapter sequence suddenly becomes nonlinear.

What are some upcoming projects you’re working on?

I am currently planning my gallery’s third exhibition featuring the work of an artist named Elle Perez. For this exhibition, I’ve challenged Elle to take a break from their usual high-tech equipment to explore the limitations of shooting with a disposable camera. Nothing Special 3 will have a public reception for the artist on May 26, and will be available for viewing for the following eight weeks by appointment.

Then in June, I will be traveling to Berlin to mount a group show as part of a Los Angeles-Berlin gallery exchange in which 25 galleries from each city have agreed to host one another for a short period. From June 5-9, SomoS Art House will show work by Nothing Special artists Veronique D’Entremont, Mark Flores, Julienne Fusello, William E. Jones, Frank J. Stockton, and Will Wasserman.

Other than that, I’ve recently been obsessed with the idea of appropriating my old digital illustrations and remaking them as large-scale paintings on canvas. If I tell you any more than that, though, I’ll have to kill you.

Why is it important to you to enrich the lives of students in the Inland Empire?

I want to see the region prosper culturally because I believe that the art we consume transforms us and our experience of the world.