Interview
Frank Hoeffler
Frank Hoeffler comes from a family of 9 siblings. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. His family moved to Muskego, Wisconsin when he was 4 years old. He attended St Leonerd Catholic grade school, Muskego High School, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts. He majored in Fine Art with a minor in Botany. He joined the Milwaukee 128 Air National Guard in 1971. Three years later he volunteered for the Air Force. He became a RADAR Air Traffic Controller and was 2nd in his class of 94 Air Men. Hoeffler was stationed in Texas, Mississippi, Maine, and Korea, honorably discharged 1978. He then became an Air Traffic Controller for the FAA, Great Lakes Region and graduated 2nd in his class of 92. He worked in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Appleton, Wisconsin, and Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Upon leaving, he opened his own business of 46 years while painting 59 years so far. He is married with 2 grown children. Frank Hoeffler began painting at an early age. He is a classically trained professional artist with formal training in advanced studios and multiple artistic mediums. His style varies from realism, impressionism, expressionism, nonrepresentational, to abstraction. He is skilled in painting various genres, including portraits, landscapes, florals, still-lives and more using both oil and watercolor. Frank Hoeffler is one of Arttour International magazines Top 60 Master Artist's for 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. He received Arttour International Magazine's “Artist of the Year 2024” award. And at the same time Hoeffler received the “Art TITAN Master of a New Era” Award in 2025. A one-hour documentary titled “Frank Hoeffler: The Reckoning of Beauty” has been produced to explore his life and can be viewed on VIVIDARTS.TV. It is being submitted to short film documentary festivals both in the country and abroad. These awards are referred to as the “Oscars of the Visual Arts.” The awards are conferred during formal Gala events held in Manhattan, New York, and Ferrari, Italy. Hoeffler has been invited, over the years, to show in a multitude of national and international juried shows in major art museums and galleries across the country and in Europe since 1982. He has judged and juried many art shows for artist guilds and art galleries. He often critiques, demonstrates, and conducts workshops as an instructor in southeastern Wisconsin. He mentors and provides painting classes for children and adults throughout the years.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I grew up in a little country town called Muskego, Wisconsin. I went to Catholic grade school and public high school. I was drawing trees and old barns since I can remember. It was when I was in high school and tock my first art class that I truly know I wanted to be an artist. After high school, I joined the USAF so I could pick my training. the Vietnam war still going on and if I didn't join on my own, I would have been drafted. So, I picked Air Traffic Control, which was one of the hardest jobs to do, but I graduated 2nd in my class of 94 and with that I could pick what base I wanted so I picked Loring AFB near the most northern eastern city in the United States, Caribou, Maine. I loved it, I was in the middle of no ware surrounded by sugar maple and pine trees. It was truly beautiful. I was stationed in Taxes, Mississippi, Main and Korea. When my 4 years was up, I was hired by the FAA as an air traffic controller for 4 years. I then started my own hair salon and gallery and have been doing that and painting for 45 years. During that time, I got married and have two beautiful children a boy and a girl of which I am extremely proud of. I went to college at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and UW Menasha, in the Peck School of the Arts and graduated with a major in Fine Art and a minor in botany.”
What inspires you?
“Everything around me and everything I see. I can't turn it off. I drive to the gallery, and I am analyzing the clouds to figure out what all the colors are that make it up. I sit in my back yard and look at the different shadows from the trees, how the grass changes colors and what I would use to paint that. I once got my children up out of bed one fall evening to sit on the front step and watch the most beautiful sunset, and I told them to look for the color in everything, grass isn't just green, and orange is not just orange. I wanted them to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us every day. So, as far as what inspires me, all I can say is the beauty that is every were around use all the time.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“I pursue nature. I use the colors, the landscape, the rivers, buildings, hills, trees, everything about it. I paint a lot of landscapes in oils and watercolor. And my style is impression, expressionism, nonrepresentational, abstract, I let the subject tells me how to represent it. The only message I want people to take away is the emotion it caused them to experience when the look at my art. The reaction it causes in them means everything to me. I love the comments, good and bad just as long as it moved them.”
How would you describe your work?
“My artwork comes from deep within me, from my emotions, my happiness, my sadness. I tell interested patrons, ‘ff you could read my paintings, you would see my soul.’ and I mean every word of that. I put myself out there on the canvas and then on the wall for everyone to critique. I paintings are full of bright colors, strong strokes. I use brushes and palette knife. I especially love to paint impasto. I want you to feel the subject I am talking about.”
Which artists influence you most?
“Henri Matisse, because of the way he uses color. ‘Madam Matisse’ or it's sometimes referred to as ‘The lady with the green line.’ John Singer Sargent, because of how he can paint sheer fabric and his strong compositions. One of my favorites of his is ‘Lady Augustin’”
“My artwork comes from deep within me, from my emotions, my happiness, my sadness.”
What is your creative process like?
“When I get an idea for a new subject it usually takes me about a week to decide if I really want to talk about that subject matter. Then another week or so to figure out how I want to represent it, i.e. abstractly, realistically, and so on. then, what sizes would work, how many will I do to say everything about it? Then another week or so to figure out color and technique, brushes or palette knife? By the end of those couple of weeks I have everything figured out in my head and I am excited to get started.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“I believe that art is all around use. We, the artists, work so as to put art in front of the people. Everything we see and use. Cars are designed, clothes are designed, houses are drawn up, I could go on and on. We eat sleep, and drink in art all day long. It takes artists to uncover it for the layman, so he can appreciate it and enjoy it even if he doesn't understand it. As far as where I think art is headed, I would say the sky is the limit.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“I have been in hundreds of galleries shows, openings, awards. I have been to many red-carpet black-tie galas, in SOHO, and Cheisea, Manhattan York, even had a documentary done on my life as an artist and what my daily life is like. I have won "The Top 60 Masters Artist of the Year Award" ARTTour International., several times. In fact I won "Top 60 Masters Artist of the Year Award" ARTTour International 2024, at the same event I was awarded the "TITAN AWARD" one of 10 awards chosen from submissions from over a hundred and eighty countries, and same event awarded Artist of the Year2024, Some of these events are on my Facebook page, just put my name in the search bar. I have just recently been chosen to be accepted and publish in "WORLD OF ART" The New Aesthetics, a book from England which is sent to all major Galleries and Museums around the world. Most of this is on my face book page. You can see the documentary on me by visiting VIVIDARTS.TV A”
Website: frankhoefflerwallart.com
Instagram: @frankhartist
