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Alumni Feature: Tom Franco

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UCSC chapter.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a third Franco brother exists. 

Tom Franco graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Fine Art-Sculpture in 2002. Franco is also the founder and director of the Firehouse Art Collective, a nonprofit that is working toward changing the arts community in the East Bay. Franco, a Berkeley artist, was on campus earlier this month to help co-teach a 10-week class called Curatorial Practice. He did this alongside gallery director Shelby Graham. Franco also gave a free public lecture on Feb. 5 at UCSC’s Music Center Recital Hall. 

Both of Franco’s parents were painting majors when they attended Stanford. Having parents that were interested in art, it became something that just “ran in the family.” His brother James Franco acts, writes, and directs. 

“Art has become an obsession on leisure and comfort. To find the little niche of an object of beauty, that radiates these qualities, is a fascination of a life time for me. The way that my hands mold material that once were left as having no value, then becomes worthy of display. It goes beyond the mere conceptual statement that something is worthy as art. The mystery lies for me in the conscious act of infusing the particles of meaning directly into the raw material at hand. The fact that such things as odd wood chips and springs and plastic paint can hold meaning is stunning amazement. The fact that my pure conscious dreaming mind can be manifest into such materials is a miracle of this natural world we live in. I find that meaning in life comes directly from this experience, the act of sitting still enough to listen and see, and the act of creating that vision to share with others. This is true modern magic.” – Tom Franco, (2013)

Follow Tom Franco’s on his Blogspot and learn more about him!

 

 

 

I'm an Undergraduate Literature Major at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Class of '15. I'm an L.A. native, have been since '93 -but I'm now living in the Santa Cruz county. I enjoy literature and I have a love for books and reading. I have an addiction for fiction. Some of my hobbies, other than reading, are baking, exploring the city, listening to music, and watching Netflix. Yes, that counts as a hobby in my mind. I like to be spontaneous but I also enjoy doing a whole lot of nothing.