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Culture August 23, 2017
Can you paint with all the colors of the Lisa Frank wind?
In the 90’s, Lisa Frank gave millions of little girls fantastical folders, pencil pouches and notebooks as school supplies. From rainbows to colorful seals and lions, every inch of Lisa Frank art was covered with vibrant colors.
Whatever happened to Lisa Frank though? Where did the Lisa Frank products come from?
ENTITY paints a picture of all that is Lisa Frank.
Lisa Frank came from a wealthy family and reigns from Bloomfield Hills, Detroit. Bloomfield Hills ranks as one of the top five wealthiest cities in America. Lisa Frank’s father ran an automotive company known as Detroit Aluminum & Brass. The company was created by Frank’s grandfather in 1925 and went on to be successful. At the time it was the only company to make engine bearings for tanks in WWII.
When she was young she attended a prep school that had attendees such as Mitt and Ann Romey and said that her love for art began at an early age.
“My dad was an art collector, my mom had a little kiln in our basement and we would make pottery. I think from about age five on, they sent me to art classes, and I was a huge colorer. HUGE. I think to keep me quiet, they would bring the coloring books and crayons, and I would fill up the books,” says Frank.
She continues, “I was totally a girly girl. I was not a jock. When I was 12, my parents got me a loom, so I was a weaver. I loved to read, I loved to do artwork, I loved to do anything girly.”
Lisa Frank has kept her identity hidden for many years. Until Scott Ross traveled all the way to Tucson, Arizona to meet the woman behind the popular 90’s art. In the documentary, entitled “The World Of Lisa Frank,” released in 2012, Ross takes a deeper look into Frank’s world. She still asked not to appear on camera, but viewers got to know more about her.
“I’m Lisa Frank and for everyone who wants to know if I do exist, I do exist. I’m a real person. We’re in my office in Tucson, Arizona,” she begins in the documentary.
She goes on to state that in a digital world, the Lisa Frank brand has stayed true to its art by still painting their designs.
Frank states, “I’m crazy. I’m, like, okay, I’m a lunatic. I, mean, yet we have to stop me and say, okay, it’s enough, because one illustration gets hundreds of hours in it, it’s really, you know, kind of madness. In the beginning, computers weren’t where they are today, and so we used acrylic paint and an airbrush to paint everything in our offices. We have a vault. It’s a fireproof vault where we keep a copy of every product that we ever made.”
You can see the full interview below.
Lisa Frank’s first product “Sticky Fingers” was a jewelry line that she described to hold a “Carmen Miranda” feel. Vice shared an interview the artist had with Foundations, in which she states that most of her reps that first worked with her on “Sticky Fingers” were passing away rapidly due to AIDS.
Frank recalls, “I made a little assembly line in my guest house of people putting all of this stuff together for me. When Sticky Fingers took off this was the day of AIDS. No one knew it was even called AIDS. A lot of the reps were gay, all of my friends were dying around me, it was crazy. When I think back it was kind of a sad and scary time.”
Lisa Frank’s business spiraled downward due to “legal battles over ownership and bad manufacturing deals,” reports the New York Times Student Journalism Institute. For this, Lisa Frank brand lost its popularity and disappeared from the public eye.
The Lisa Frank factory which is located in Tucson, Arizona is empty. Lisa Frank’s mailman since 1996 Ray Champaco says that the factory is now a ghost of a building. He recalls seeing countless employees and trucks delivering products, he says, “But not anymore.”
Lee Gambrell, the company’s accountant, stated that employees dwindled down from 350 to six.
Even though Lisa Frank seemed to fade throughout the years, one thing is for sure. The artist’s colorful creations will never fade from the memories of all of the little girls from the 90’s.
