| Francine Turk considers her work a kind of emotional self-portraiture, an expression of and about freedom. While Francine's works capture the body's form with seeming ease and effortlessness, they are essentially soulful - revealing and so provoking in the viewer an unmistakable feeling. It is no accident that many of Francine's nudes are named not for their subjects' physical postures, but for the passions by which they are animated.
Francine's work has a timeless quality that allows it to feel equally organic in modern and traditional settings. Francine's many influences include historical illustrations, photography, architecture and design and nature. These may help to explain why Francine's pieces, while filled with life, are nonetheless hard to date with any precision. Francine recalls once having seen a photograph of a turn-of-the-century Parisian salon with a gallery of artwork covering its walls. "I realized I didn't want my work to feel limited to today. I wanted my pieces to appear as though they might have been collected over time."
Francine is inspired by spaces and considers original artwork to "breathe life into an environment" in a way nothing else can. Francine's appreciation for historical detail inspires her use of antique frames, which she restores and hand paints, to complement, or indeed complete, her artwork. "Framing changes a piece dramatically; the two work together to form a whole. I never want someone to have to reframe my work." |
