Feature

From Liverpool to New York: Frank Moore, never too late to pursue my dream

By Ivy Jiahui Huang, January 16, 2019

The Madam, an oil art painting, is planned to be exhibited in the Mayson Gallery in lower-east Manhattan New York in 2019. This artwork is painted by Frank Moore, an artist worked in the MAKE studio in North Liverpool.

According to Frank, the work is over there in New York now, but the exhibition date hasn’t been confirmed yet. The officer in the gallery told him it would be in February.

He’s been doing this job for twenty years now, “some minor success but nothing big”, he laughed, “but I’ve just got a painting in a gallery in New York. This is the biggest thing that happened to me”, said Frank.

Becoming an artist at the age of 36

Frank is not the kind of artist who started his career at a very young age, on the contrary, he hasn’t decided to be an artist until he was 36 years old and was encouraged by his two sisters. According to Frank, “My two sisters influence me most in my life, they persuaded me to do the arts. I’ve always drawn a lot since I was a child. I didn’t get back to it until I was 36.” He was working in Germany as a joiner and then he decided to come back to Liverpool.

When he was asked if he was worried about his decision, he denied, “I just push me, I never have ambition as a joiner, but I have an ambition as an artist.” Then, after quitting his job, he did a foundation in the John Moores University from 1997 to 2000 and got a BA degree in Fine Art.

When he was asked if he was worried about his decision, he denied, “I just push me, I never have ambition as a joiner, but I have an ambition as an artist.” Then, after quitting his job, he did a foundation in the John Moores University from 1997 to 2000 and got a BA degree in Fine Art.

Finding confidence

His room is not big, but organized. Our journalist can see the sketches he painted along the desk and the brushes and paint box are organized well in his desk. He loves reading as well. For example, he read The Letters of Vincent van Gogh and related himself with him. In 2010, he was diagnosed with Epilepsia. As he read, he found out although people said Van Gogh has the disease of bipolar, some also suggest it is Epilepsia. In this condition, he felt an emotional connection with him. Not only does the disease make him feel bonded with Van Gogh, Frank told Scottie Press that his painting speed is also similar to him. “Sometimes I drew very quickly, I was worried and then I found Van Gogh also drew fast.”

Frank is quite frank about his experience in painting, “It’s only in about last two and half years that I actually got my confidence in my work. Maybe that’s why I got to the New York gallery. Before that, I was just evolving, satisfy my own initiative, be my own artist, I felt like I got there now.”

He gained his confidence by finding his originality. “I was always trying to find out what I was trying to achieve.” He was looking for a technique that he really enjoyed, which is “put it on quite thick”. “I was trying to work out how to make the composition, most time it’s the colour that attracts people. I was trying to find a way that put things together that appeal to people. Now I found my own technique.” Frank elaborated, “That’s where I started to feel I was doing something right. I decided to be a self-portrayer, about life and me thinking what’s going on in the world today.”

In his website, he used a simple word to explain his focus, “mindless behavious”. He said, “a lot of artists just put a big, artsy word, I like to put it in a simple way.” He has experience for a lot of that in the past and he’s been guilty since then, so his work involved violence, alcohol, distraction on human, etc.

He talked about the mindless behavior in Liverpool among the younger generations who smoke, take drugs, but he claimed “I just depict it, I don’t think I can change anything. I just want to paint it, it’s just the way people are.”