UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology January 1, 2022 - Flipbook - Page 45
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
canvas. When you are old enough to work,
you follow your parents into the labor
industry because you know it will teach you
the work ethic you need to someday only
make art.
This is a snapshot of Marcine Franckowiak’s
early years, and when hired in 2013 as
Brooklyn-based Colossal Media’s first
female apprentice “wall dog,” Marcine not
only began living her dream, but she tore
through the razor-wire fencing surrounding
that industry so other young women might
follow her through. This sounds impressive
even before understanding what a wall dog
is. But let’s rewind. Let’s return to Baltimore
in the early-aughts when Marcine was still
dreaming away the mental and muscle
fatigue of service jobs.
while at Pratt, in Brooklyn. She also
encountered her first wall dogs, men who
hand-painted photo-realistic advertisements
on the sides of buildings, each painting
completed in a week or less. They told her
they worked for Colossal Media. This was
Marcine’s epiphany moment, the gamechanger, the turning point. Here was a job
that seamlessly combined physical labor
and photo-realist painting, meshed public
art with aesthetic pleasure, and would pay
her while she added even more tools to her
painting toolkit.
After receiving her MFA in 2009 for
both painting and aesthetic philosophy,
she applied with Colossal to become an
apprentice wall dog. She was turned down,
as she would be for the next four years.
Undeterred, Marcine took an extra step with
In 2002, San Francisco had an internationally each rejection, learning how to paint murals
with the Philadelphia Mural Organization
envied art scene. What had been termed
and volunteering with Groundswell and
“new genres” had redefined itself as
other city mural projects. When she was
several genres: performance art, virtual
finally hired by Colossal in 2013, she learned
art, and new media art, to name a few.
that apprentices don’t get days off, and
San Francisco Art Institute was still the art
that even a petite woman needed to help
school to attend in the Bay Area, and Brett
build the riggings and haul the materials
Reichman was newly leading the painting
(and herself) up said riggings, sometimes
program with the tight-reined control he
uses in his photo-realist watercolors painted 30-stories high, if she was going to earn
respect and keep her apprenticeship. She
entirely with hatch and cross-hatch marks.
became physically stronger. Whenever she
SFAI was Marcine’s new goal, and by the
was lacking in one area, she made herself
time she earned her BFA in 2006, not only
invaluable in another. Her mantra became,
had Reichman’s mentorship strengthened
“You are only as good as your last wall.”
her realism painting skills, she had also
discovered critical theory and a fascination
with Lisa Yuskavage’s feminist paintings and Fast-forward to December 2021, and
Marcine, a recently named ArtNews Los
Laura Mulvey’s 1975 essay, “Visual Pleasure
Angeles artist to watch, is thriving in
and Narrative Cinema.” This essay alone
Frogtown with her husband, Jimmy, a
would have been enough to cause her to
graphic designer and creative director
rethink her own artistic objectives, but her
for Dice Magazine. Part of the elite wall
foray into selling art in San Francisco fine
dog crew for Overallmurals and Walldogs,
art galleries left her questioning whether
Marcine flies all over the country scaling and
she wanted to dedicate her life to making
painting walls.
work for the wealthy to hang above their
sofas. Could she be like Marilyn Minter and
Marcine doesn’t harbor regret for the hours
make a living while still making a political
she is unable to work on canvas. When
statement, while making work that would
she does paint her own works, they are
cross the gallery threshold into public art?
as thoughtful and thought-provoking as
Marcine explored these questions further
they were when Laura Mulvey’s essay and
Katy Grannan’s “Poughkeepsie” sequence
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