Frazetta: Painting With Fire screens at Newport Beach Festival

“Painting With Fire” transports you inside the incredible world and mind of legendary fantasy artist Frank Frazetta.

Frazetta’s art has graced album covers, magazines, posters, calendars and paperbacks. His work is everywhere. His style is a familiar signboard. It is unmistakable. It is art. It is always in the public domain, because Frank Frazetta shapes mindscapes. Visions. He has helped carve our expectations of what we want in fantasy artwork.

For the first time ever, reclusive American Illustrator Frank Frazetta tells his life story. Mirroring the dramatic nature of his work, this film utilizes the latest visual effects techniques and an orchestral original musical score to create astonishing results.

In “Frazetta: Painting With Fire,” we see how mainstream culture embraces the artist’s landmarks…a life of work that’s mind-bending, and how it makes intellectuals swell with opinions. We learn to respect Frank Frazetta for his talent, and passion.

The interviews in Painting With Fire help reveal the man, and the mind behind the fingertips. The film just absolutely breathes. Industry giants such as Ralph Bakshi, Bernie Wrightson, Dave Stevens, Joe Jusko, Brom, Al Williamson, and Mark Schultz weigh in on the Master, as do Hollywood Directors John Milius and Ralph Bakshi. They reveal their relationships. They analyze, and reflect. Each account poetic.

In contrast to many other artists of his time, Frank did not fit the typical artist stereotype. He was born in 1928 and grew up in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood where survival required a certain amount of mental and physical toughness. He had movie-star good looks and was well liked.

Early on he valued his physical abilities over his artistic talent and developed into quite a formidable baseball player. But soon his artistic instincts took over, turning down an offer to play for the professional New York Baseball Giants.

With the success of his Conan The Barbarian book covers, Frazetta was ultimately responsible for the massive growth of the paperback industry in the 1960’s, and was the lead figure in innovating the policy of “first publication rights”.

From 1950-2000 no other artist has been more influential. He has literally influenced thousands of other artists, filmmakers, and writers still working today, and his ideas and designs have become standards in the vocabulary of art expression.

Such Hollywood giants as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Francis Ford Coppola, Dino De Laurentis, Sylvester Stallone, and Stephen King have collected his work. Frazetta has been showcased in American Artist (the highest-selling issue in its history), Esquire, Forbes, and countless other features worldwide.

He is rare “true artist” in that he paints directly from his imagination without use of photos, models, or external reference.

We have attempted to explain why some critics refuse to regard Frank as a “fine artist” unlike many of his American predecessors, including N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, Norman Rockwell and Frederick Remington.

Most importantly perhaps, we have set all of these issues against the backdrop of Mr. Frazetta’s deteriorating health. Twelve years ago he was on his deathbed and one day away from dying due to a misdiagnosed thyroid condition. A local priest gave him his last rights as family members mourned by his side. At the last possible instance, the doctor tried one final treatment which would fortunately save his life.

Recently he has managed to survive six strokes, but as a result his right hand, his drawing hand, has been rendered numb. With his incredible fortitude, Frank has taught himself to draw and paint with his left hand, a feat only accomplished by a select few in professional art history.

Painting With Fire tells of a life, and the spark of an artist, and what Frazetta means to future inspirations. Frank Frazetta is not just a pop phenomenon, but a creative artist destined for a serious place in art history.

Watch the trailer.