About

I have been an artist all my life. I started out painting with oil then experimented with watercolor. Only in the past few years have I used acrylics for painting. I have also been practicing photography for 50 years in film and digital. I have many outlets for my creativity like jewelry making, macrame, textile design, architecture, designing furniture, faucets, and lighting.

I was born and raised in Spokane, Wa. In my early 20s, I moved to Seattle where I lived for 30 years. After three decades of rain, I moved to sunny Arizona where you get 50 weeks of cloudless days every year. But, in the summer, the 120 degree days were a bit too hot so I moved to central California just outside Yosemite where I worked as a fire lookout.

Eventually things came full circle and I moved back to Spokane in 2014. I have been showing my photo paintings around town and have had 15 or so shows at various local establishments.

I have traveled to a few different countries around the world like France, Italy, Nepal, Greece, Mexico and of course, Canada. Over the years, I have acquired college degrees in Electronics, Horticulture, Architecture, and Photography.  In the past couple years, I have been focusing mainly on photography and building a business of photographing and making videos of people and their businesses. My photo site is at frankiebenkaphoto.com.