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Born on Christmas day in 1977,
Franklin Kielar grew up in upstate NY near Utica. The small town life
rubbed off on him as he grew an appreciation for nature and wildlife.
Drawing outdoors and studying how things move and interact became a favorite
pass time as did watching people go about their lives. Stemming from a
fondness for cartoons and especially Disney movies, Franklin began learning
to draw characters and animals. After graduating high school, he attended
college at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale where he pursued a degree
in animation. The switch from small town living to the city life influenced
his artwork and he began to branch out to more abstract works along with
pieces that involved many layers of detail. Favoring pencils all through
High School and College, his works began to grow in detail and contrast
along with depth and meaning. Finding the benefit of using grayscale markers
during college, he began working on larger black and white pieces of a
more illustrative fashion taking his skills with abstract and surrealism
and combining them with character designs and studies used for animation.
The use of traditional mediums was a great advantage in forming the look
and feel for animated characters and settings as well. In December 1999,
Franklin graduated with a BA in computer animation and began the search
for work. With limited funds, he took a job with a small local frame shop
in Fort Lauderdale where he learned how to present artwork professionally.
Being surrounded by artwork and working with several artists expanded
his appreciation for more varieties of work. Since graduation, traditional
artwork was favored over digital artwork due to the lack of appreciation
he saw being given to modern digital art. Franklin began focusing on painting
and drawing again and soon moved to Virginia where he felt he could expand
his art career. However the economy took a hit due to September 11th and
work was hard to find once more. Freelance work wouldn't sustain him and
thus he joined the work force again. Two hard years passed with little
progress being made on his career goals. A small company named Futuregrafix
was formed where he served as art director and artist for about 6 months.
Sadly that venture failed and fed up with limited possibilities, he moved
back home to NY and cared for his Grandmother for a year while doing odd
jobs and freelance whenever possible. That year in NY helped recharge
Franklin's ambition and in January he took all he had and moved once more
without any direction back to Fort Lauderdale. With his contacts from
living there before, he soon landed a job with a wholesale framing company
where his knowledge of both artwork and framing came in very handy along
with his previous experience in technical support. During this time he
continued working on his artwork and animation and began creating storyboards
for some short film ideas. His sketchbook was never far from his hands
and even though he did less in previous years than he would have liked,
the creativity came back with a vengeance. Everything he had learned began
to come together as he used all he had learned now to create illustrations
to go along with his poetry, realistic wildlife pencil works, and surreal
paintings involving contrasting reality with cartoon elements. With a
firmer grip on his life, Franklin moved once more from Florida to take
an IT Help Desk job in Rochester NY, with the hopes of going back to school
there for a master's in art or animation. There he continues to live while
working on short films and artwork for exhibits and freelance.
Over the years Franklin has had several works of poetry published and
has had several art exhibits in NY. He is planning on doubling his involvement
with art shows in 2008 and pursuing his artwork on a more full time
basis. Currently he is in preproduction for two personal short animation
projects due in 2008. Franklin continues to explore new mediums and
ways to expanding his skills in animation and art.
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