A mixed-media work by local Venice Beach artist, Frank Strasser was chosen by the Venice Family Clinic for the 2015/16 Artist Card campaign. According to Venice Family Clinic literature, the Artist Cards: “Support thousands of men, women and children in need this holiday season by purchasing Venice Family Clinic Artist Cards. All proceeds from Artist Cards directly fund Venice Family Clinic’s affordable, quality health care services for low-income, uninsured and homeless men, women and children on the Westside of Los Angeles. Featuring artwork of renowned national and local artists, your holiday greeting will not only support the clinic, but help us get the word out to friends and family – a wonderful way to drive additional support for Venice Family Clinic.” Venice Family Clinic’s Artist Cards Program is underwritten by a generous grant from the Frederick R. Weisman Philanthropic Foundation. For any questions about the Artist Cards, please contact: Pam Kerr at 310.664.7947.
An interview with the artist: February, 2014 Free Venice Beachhead:
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 more… )
“Local Color for a Cause” : February 5, 2014 issue of The Argonaut.
Veteran Venice artists Frank Strasser and Margaret Molloy team up at Hama Sushi in support of a memorial for Japanese Americans imprisoned during World War II
By Michael Aushenker
From Strasser’s colorful, quasi-surreal tributes to Venice — paintings such as “Blue Canal,” in which the bridge and its reflection formulate a kind of third eye, and “Eclectic Avenue,” alive with caricatures of Venice denizens — his connection to the neighborhood is apparent.
A self-taught artist, Strasser grew up in Culver City and got the art bug as a child after receiving a paint set for Christmas. After earning his degree in English literature at Loyola Marymount University, Strasser headed for Europe, where he was inspired by Impressionist works, and then Mexico, where he sang in a house band at an outdoor club in Puerto Vallarta. (Read more…)
“Creatives You Should Know” appeared in the September 4, 2014 edition of Studio Vox.
Artist, Frank Strasser is a native California boy in every way. Inspired by the laid back California culture of the beach, he has lived and worked in Venice, California for 35 years capturing with paint the local color and vibrancy of the beach town he loves and its neighboring communities that make up the sprawling city of Los Angeles.
A self-taught artist, who spent years traveling around Europe and the UK studying the masters, his paintings, are bright, colorful, fun and capture the free spirit of Los Angeles, especially Venice Beach (one of the leading tourist attractions in California).
“I paint a child’s world as it might be seen through an adult’s eyes … or vise versa,” says Frank. You can see that in the whimsical yet honest portrayals of the people he captures enjoying the California lifestyle in all of his paintings.
His originals are collected all over the world. His most recent sale was to a client in Rome, Italy. His work has been featured on the covers of The Venice Historical Society Journal and in the Free Venice Beachhead. (Read More…)
Frank’s image “April on Retro Canal” was chosen as cover art for the critically-acclaimed: “Rainbow’s End.”
The first novel by JB Bonds received 4.5 stars from readers on Amazon, among with the following review: :Joanie O’Hara and Rosalind Powell, widowed sisters in their seventies, decided to move to Rainbow’s End Retirement Community in Pelican Key, Florida to be together at this stage of their lives. Pelican Key is a perfect location to retire, since it is only about twenty miles north of Key West, where the sisters go often for a day’s outing or a night of fun at one of the local bars. Even if Joanie and Roz are in their seventies, they still enjoy the night life. This is especially true when their friend Burton, who was once on Broadway in New York City, entertains the entire bar by standing on the table in his stilettos and mini skirt, singing for all he’s worth. (Read More…)
Frank’s art has been featured three times as the cover art for the Venice Historical Society Journal.
SUMMER 2009. Volume 23
Ray Bradbury’s Venice
By Delores Hanney
Ray Bradbury is, of course, most revered for his ingenious fiction of the speculative sort; some of it – most notably The Martian Chronicles – was created while he was a resident of Venice between 1941 and 1950.
WINTER 2008-09. Volume 22
Miss Muscle Beach 1948 Honored in Venice
By Delores Hanney
At 77, all petite and pink and perky and topped by a little halo of spun-sunlight hair, Sara Hirsch Clark may seem an unlikely inductee into the Muscle Beach Hall of Fame. But, there she was this past Labor Day, taking her place amongst other Muscle Beach legends.
February/March/April 2008. Volume 22
Venice Post Office Dedication
The Venice Post Office mural, titled “Story of Venice” by artist Edward Biberman, was never formally dedicated in 1941. A special program took place in November of last year to finally dedicate this wonderful depiction of Venice’s first thirty years.