About Molly
Molly Franken is a self-taught artist and certified master naturalist. She began painting after a neurological event left her with debilitating symptoms. As a result, many daily activities including the use of electronic screens, became difficult so she began to work in new and tactile ways in order to adapt, which brought her deeper into the exploration of painting.
Her art practice is interwoven with her growing trajectory in ecology and conservation. She has recently begun working with researchers, biologists and conservationists, capturing information and data to help inform her artistic endeavors. Her regular immersion in the natural world provides deep inspiration. She comes from a previous career in the film & television industry. Currently she splits her time between California & her home state of Florida.
She hopes you like what you find here but, if you don’t, that’s okay too - it’s art after all.
Artist Statement
“My work is an active exploration of a shifting perspective, sidling across registers of figuration, abstraction and magical realism. My process is a response to what the medium itself is doing so throughout my work there is an interdependence present, much like how both we and the natural world engage and survive. My work is more instinctual than skilled and more embodied than planned. Timing and intuition are required to create my work in its final form. I primarily use watercolor, ink and acrylic to create the sense of movement and imaginal depth that my pieces contain. Without my chosen medium’s natural flow and state, I would not be able to enact within my own and receive the same results. It is an energetic and tangible call-and-response. In my work, you will find hints of literal and definitive expression and form that I hope invite the viewer into a new depiction of a world that already very much exists and is worth saving.”
