Escape Artist: The Art of Fran Forman

In this rich and dream-like collection of photo-paintings, artist and fabulist Fran Forman offers characters, scenes and visual narratives that lure the imagination. She explores the multiple meanings of the word escape, focusing on the central idea of breaking through the normal barriers of everyday life. Many of these figures appear to be floating or rowing or sailing away, trying to leave the rest of the earth-bound world behind. Thus, the artist invites us to ask ourselves what realities exist beyond the traditional limits of gravity, linear time, and social convention. The exquisite poems and story by writer Michelle Blake act as a guidebook to these vast imaginary worlds, suggesting voices for some of the characters and destinations for some of the journeys. All together, the book offers its own particular form of beauty, one that invites the viewer to step outside the known. AUTHOR: Fran holds a BA in sociology, an MSW and MFA. While working as a graphic designer and raising two daughters, Fran continued to create her personal art, combining her illustrative and photographic skills with a passion for surrealism, illusion, the non-human world, and the dislocations of time and place. A Resident Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, Fran’s exhibitions and her many significant awards have won her national and international recognition. Her work appears in numerous publications and as book cover art.She is represented by galleries in Boston, Dallas, Austin, California, and Beijing. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. 96 colour and b/w