Jean Francois - Extreme Art
May 20th, 2007 Posted in NoveltyWhen You Want A Show that Your Audience Will Remember…
Jean Francois offers one of the most unique and exciting programs available for the corporate market. While many may initially see yet another following in the footsteps of Denny Dent, closer
inspection will prove that Jean Francois’ Extreme Art is a creation completely his own and is excitingly different from anything else out there.
His act is a veritable rock show in full color. Shades of the spectrum come to life as Jean creates a masterpiece made especially for anyone ranging from corporate and association groups to Las Vegas theatre-goers. Rock music creates the mood as Jean twists and contorts, jumps and slides, slings and spreads paint all around. He has worked for some of the biggest companies in the world becoming a premier act in the corporate market.
This form of artistic entertainment wasn’t something Jean just jumped into to turn a quick buck. Not only has art been a significant focal point throughout his life, but it is honestly and truly in his blood. “My father was an avid artist, as was my grandfather and many before him. My father was very active in the artists’ social scenes and he met with other artists and painted wherever he went.” The influence soon rubbed off on Jean and he became an accomplished artist as a child.
Jean’s family vacationed in Spain and it was there that he had an experience that would influence his life and solidify his obsession with art. “We were in Spain staying in a house there in a little village in 1978. This was a small place on the ocean in the Catalonia region of Spain and amazingly enough we were just a few houses down from Salvador Dali.” Dali, the most famous surrealist painter, is counted among the ranks of Van Gogh and Monet
and was a major influence of Jean’s. “I met Dali when I was about eighteen. I was in art school at the time and he was courteous enough to invite me to the opening of his art museum in Figaro, Spain.”
Jean has spent a lifetime studying and enjoying art. Despite misconceptions, Jean was never aware of Denny Dent, the recently deceased wildman who brought art and entertainment together on college campuses in the eighties. No, Jean was thousands of miles away and years removed from making his entertainment debut. As a matter of fact, the seed of turning his art into a form of stage entertainment was planted in Jean’s subconscious long before even Denny Dent became popular. “In the fifties there was a program called ‘Rolf on Art’ on the BBC. Rolf Harris is still on TV today actually. He
is an Australian artist who is not only a painter, but also a songwriter and TV host among his other talents. When I was a really small kid he was doing art in many different ways on television. One of the things he did that struck me was painting on these giant canvases. He was painting aborigines and other things for children and it really influenced me.”
The next step in Jean’s evolution in art public performance was the explosion of art in public in the early seventies. “There were many people doing art in the streets on the French Riviera and in Spain, where I also spent a lot of time. I liked to watch these guys doing caricatures and portraits of people. I always thought that was a really cool way of making a living, but this was through the eyes of a kid; I never thought I could really do it.”
Jean says in that freethinking (and living) time period just after the sixties, a totally “no-strings-attached” artist’s living was even more appealing. By the time he was in art school, the idea was rooted. “While I was in art school in Paris, I would paint and do portraits as a part of my classroom training, but I learned to like doing caricatures and other pictures of people on the streets, mostly for practice, not intending to really make any money.” Eventually Jean was doing well enough to make a nice living with public art.
In an unrelated venture (though a connection will come into play), Jean opened his own aerobics studio and did quite well in a business sense. So well in fact, he was able to sell the 
studio and buy a sailboat, in which he decided to sail around the world. Now that is free and clear living. “From the age of 23 to about 32 I lived on my boat and circumnavigated the globe twice. To help support my travels, I painted for people wherever I went.”
For a while Jean was living a dream. He was having the time of his life and doing what he loved in a very relaxed way to keep him afloat. Unfortunately in 1993, circumstances would prove too much for Jean to continue his perpetual vacation. “My sailboat was heavily damaged in a typhoon in Guam. I couldn’t get it out quick enough and it was completely destroyed.”
Jean was left with little options. He was acquainted with some people from a showroom in Guam who booked a Las Vegas style show for the local tourism industry. “There are a lot of Japanese tourists there who see these shows, so I did some openings for the magicians there. The other members of the show’s cast were all dancers from New York and Las Vegas who said I should go to Vegas. Since my boat was gone, I figured I might as well check it out and see what was going on.”
Jean came to live in the United States in 1993. He was originally coming to try and find some work, so he didn’t get a green card. Jean is a pretty active guy and into the extreme lifestyle so while living in Las Vegas he became interested in rock climbing. “I decided I wanted to climb El Capitan in Yosemite. I stayed longer than I was supposed to with my Visa,” he admits ruefully. “I was practicing in the Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas for a while, but I finally climbed El Capitan. I then decided I wanted to stay in the United States.”
All of this time Jean was developing his show more and more in the Las Vegas fashion, coming in contact with the right people around town to turn his painting into Extreme Art. He ended up with contracts in several venues, including an 18-month run in the New York, New York casino. “I did a show there every night, which led directly into my involvement
with corporate engagements. Once I found that market, I decided to focus all of my energy there.”
One important way Jean Francois stands out from the crowd of painters doing this sort of show is very significant. “There are a lot of people out there now who are trying to do this thing because of its sudden popularity. The difference is that most of them pencil in or sketch their drawing lightly before the show and then just paint by number. The audience can’t see it (most of the time), but I don’t do that. Everything is totally freehand and being made up on the spot right in front of the audience. I bring people on stage and have them check my canvas before I start. I feel there is a big difference there. If it is not spontaneous, it is not so much about the audience, the moment and the event itself. It is like having a musician who can come in and read music to play you the same old song, or you can get the guy who is a natural and plays by ear and emotion, where every performance is different and special.”
Jean explains he can put 100 percent of his energy into delivering a stellar performance, rather than having to look for lines on a board. When it comes to delivering a star quality performance, Jean Francois has put his heart and soul into delivering the best his audiences can find. “The show is about so much more than just painting. When I do my show, the full version is 90 minutes but I can cut it to fit anyone’s schedule. I do a lot of comedy and talk to the audience. I talk about art and the world today and really pull the audience into the artistic process. I may do a painting of the Statue of Liberty while talking about freedom and what it means to the world.” He doesn’t constrict his artistic medium to
merely oil and canvas either. Using anything from shadows and light to modern sculpture, Jean consistently pushes the line of Extreme Art.
He describes one project where he starts with a huge block of clay. Following the theme of the evolution of man, he carves down to the Earth as just a big ball of dirt. This takes shape into the slope browed caveman, who slowly morphs into a modern homo sapien. In the end, the audience is looking back at none other than Albert Einstein. “It fits perfectly into my message for corporate audiences because it explains about having a vision and evolving it into something refined and useful.”
One of the most appealing aspects for corporate and association groups with Jean Francois is the fact that he is a blank canvas – color him and his show as you will. He has complete freedom to customize for any audience and the possibilities of what can happen are bound only by imagination. Jean even worked some magic into his shows for a while, so honestly nothing is out of the question. The experience also helped give him a flair for the drama of the stage.
Jean says his life is full of things he learned or picked up when he was younger that he
thought he would never use again, (like the magic). Oh and remember the aerobics? “That part of my life was so far in the past, I thought I would never use it again, but my experience in aerobics has considerably helped my show. I do so much running and moving and jumping around that if I wasn’t in shape, my show would be much more subdued.”
Jean Francois offers his Extreme Art program at a price many will find more than reasonable, especially when they see the super-charged impact his show has on their audience. He has been working for corporate groups for years now and his experience with them is evident. Anything from a made-from-scratch custom show to a turnkey operation is available from Jean. If you really want to get your group opened up and motivated, consider one of his Extreme Keynotes, specifically designed to inspire and involve your attendees.
With one of the most exciting, unique and adaptable shows out there, Jean Francois is certainly making a splash (in full color).
BOOK IT!
Jean Francois
Extreme Art
(702) 228-9534