The cleverly titled documentary, Rembrandt Lives in New Jersey, by Kasey Child, presents the artwork and life of an 80+ year-old New Jersey native “etcher” and printmaker, Helen Frank, while paying tribute to 17th century Dutch printmaker, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. We see a snippet of Helen Frank on NJN News in 2010, teaching printing to a group of adults. “What I’m doing is what Rembrandt did. It doesn’t look the same, but it's the same history. I’m holding hands with all the people who have gone before me and fallen in love with this medium,” she says. Although Frank employs the same art techniques as Rembrandt, throughout the documentary Frank illustrates (no pun intended) to viewers that her artwork beautifully reflects her own unique experiences and style.
At the beginning of the documentary, Frank plants herself in front of her beloved bedroom funhouse mirror and recounts how she obtained the once amusement park-owned, warped mirror. She explains that the mirror was not initially for sale until she and an amusement park guard bonded over a love for a certain merry-go-round horse. The guard agreed to gift Frank the wobbly mirror in exchange for an original painting of the carousel horse. In the documentary, Frank reveals a beautiful carousel horse she etched and painted with watercolor. We see interview clips of Frank in various rooms around her house, many of which have large horse figurines for decoration. We also see Frank’s etched and watercolor-painted design of a hand-drawn wiggly woman with two different body types in two different frames, as Frank vulnerably opens up about her experiences with body dysmorphia.
Helen Frank works on a project only when inspiration strikes. “The process is no process,” she says. “I wait and just live my life and see what’s gonna happen every day.” Her most recent passion project utilized different types of art supplies to create different textures in her colorful New York City food cart print. The art has detailed, drawn-out sketches, but also intentional color blends and smudges. The art is playful, yet sophisticated. “The artist has a vision,” Frank explains. “Everyone has their own vision of what they see.”
Frank has been expressing herself through art her entire life. She attended Rhode Island School of Design. There are several photos and videos of her at different ages at art exhibits, teaching art classes and showing off her impressive pieces. Frank even walks us through her artistic process of how to draw an image on a plate, etch it, and print on a handmade press. Frank’s pieces have been in libraries and museums all over the United States.
Art has gotten Frank through some of the toughest times in her life. “I managed to save myself through art,” Frank says of her experiences coping with her mother’s passing. Fortunately, Frank’s parents have always been accepting of her as an artist. And although Frank prefers to create her artwork alone in the basement of her house, she is constantly surrounded by love from her husband, children, grandchildren, and puppies.
In the final documentary clip, Frank cranks the levers on her printing machine and explains that in the midst of all her printing, she must find and hold onto her most perfect print, which is “the standard by which all others are compared” -- otherwise known as the “master” print. While Rembrandt is the artist to whom Frank is constantly compared, it is quite clear that Helen Frank, in her own right, is also a master at printmaking and painting.
Rembrandt Lives in New Jersey screens at the Spring 2023 New Jersey Film Festival on Friday, February 10 as part of the Short Program #3. The film will be Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ.
To buy tickets go here. For General Info on the Film Festival go here: https://newjerseyfilmfestivalspring2023.eventive.org/welcome
