Local artist Francise headlining the Hop

Though he has completed about two decades’ worth of work in Merced, it is rare for Dob Francise to be the one in the spotlight.

With wall murals, play backdrops, countless sculptures and paintings making up his body of work, the 52-year-old is usually the guy behind the scenes.

Being the featured artist for the Art Hop is something of a first, he said. “It’s not stage fright but, yeah, it’s a little bit nerve-wracking,” he said.

The celebration of all things art is planned from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday on West Main Street in downtown Merced.

Theater-goers in Merced may be familiar with Francise’s art, though they may not know it. He has done set pieces for everything from “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Sound of Music” to “King Lear” and “Pygmalion.”

Francise is originally from Los Angeles and grew up in Venice Beach, he said. He is the fourth of five children to his parents, who ran a house-painting company.

He said he is mostly a self-taught artist who looks up to others such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Michelangelo and “all the turtles,” referring to the comic book turtles who carry the names of Renaissance artists.

Putting popular culture characters and classically trained painters in the same sentence is not awkward, he said. Whether artists are painting images that could some day end up in the Louvre or in the newest edition of “The Amazing Spider-man,” he noted, they’re still artists.

He said art doesn’t pay all of his bills, but he does make some money off of it. “I don’t survive as an artist, but I have to do art,” he said.

He will work for “cheap,” he said, or outright volunteer – whether that be for children’s art classes, shows at Playhouse Merced or plays during Shakespearefest, to name a few. Those classes for children are about introducing primarily 5- to 11-year-olds to how to think like an artist, he said. They discuss shapes, creativity, imagination and other concepts.

Francise comes across subtle imagery in his daily life that translates into his artwork, which often carries its own images under the surface. For example, he connects his fondness for horror movie monsters to his Oct. 20 birth date, which he shares with “Dracula” star Bela Lugosi. Then there was earlier this month, while he painted a werewolf, when he discovered there was a “Wolf Moon” in the sky, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

Wherever art comes from, he said, it plays an important role in the lives of people. “When they see it, they’re affected, and that’s what art’s about,” he said. “Whether you like it or not you’re affected. You’re changed in one way or another by perceiving what somebody else has put out there.”

Much of his work can be found on his Facebook page, or under his profile on www.fineartamerica.com.

As the Art Hop’s featured artist, Francise and his work Saturday night will be displayed inside Binary Systems Computer Repair, 600 W. Main St.

For more on Art Hop, go to www.mercedarthop.org.

This story was originally published January 15, 2015 at 12:17 PM with the headline "Local artist Francise headlining the Hop."