[Music] Most of my major work is in oil painting and I do it as much as I can but recently I've been very much involved in acrylic and it's always a problem is opening the can.

Here we go.

I've actually become well known for my depictions of life in L.A. and especially car culture, the freeway.

I know it so well because I've lived here all my life.

I'm one of 163 cousins.

We all knew each other and grew up together.

We were very close family.

I started as a 14 year old going to Otis Art Institute.

Peter Voulkos was teaching at Otis and by the time I started college at Cal State I was known for my work in ceramics early on and I've always worked in ceramics ever since I even teach a class to this day.

Myself and Carlos Almaraz shared a house in Angelino Heights which is a Victorian neighborhood in Los Angeles.

Carlos and I, we were both trained to be elitists in the art schools and when we met Lujan he said no, you're a Chicano artist.

- The other part of is conditioning Frank you don't really want to change what you've been doing all along.

you're kind of happy with - I know.

- I feel - You're a happy Mexican.

- That's what I want to know.

- Do you believe that?

That ensued into a huge discussion over 15 years about what is Chicano art.

- I'm not hassling you about control.

- Yeah, no, I It was a different form of expression but it was very much American and we all in a sense embraced it.

Somehow we ended up at LACMA.

Four young Chicano artists, Los Four.

They gave us originally a very small little room to have a show in.

They had to expand.

They gave us all of the second floor of one of the wings of the museum.

- Up there.

- Perfect.

And the show broke attendance records and it was an amazing event was very influential.

The first major show of Chicano art.

Subsequently years later we kind of felt bad that we were all men and we invited Judithe Hernandez to join the group and she became the fifth member of Los Four.

After the Los Four exhibition, I ended up being well known for doing protest paintings about police brutality.

One painting was about the sheriff's closing Whittier Boulevard to cruising.

There were all these beautiful cars and the police closed it off and then the last one was the Arrest of the Paleteros and that had to do with the city of Los Angeles harassing immigrant street vendors.

The license to sell on the street was $900 and we're talking about very poor people who could not buy a license.

In the 60s and 70s, we were all doing murals all over L.A.

In those days you could do it without city authorization.

You would just ask the the owner if you'd like a mural and you'd ask for money, maybe he'd give you $30 for paint.

The symbols I use are always the same you know I always end up with doing a low rider and a broken heart and a cactus and all that kind of stuff.

In '84 they chose ten L.A. artists including myself to do a mural for the Olympics.

That mural lasted 40 years and it's been repainted three times.

I love the idea of the car with the heart and then palm trees and you know California.

- These parts are blue.

These parts are white.

- Incredible.

I will paint it.

I like the size of that.

I could sell this for thousands of dollars.

[Laughs] - Sounds good.

I'll put it over here.

A young artist by the name of Michael Flechtner interprets my drawings in neon.

I've always loved neon.

The colors are just so brilliant.

I guess there's no other word for it.

I never thought I would be sharing a studio space with Frank.

To be able to watch him work.

I kind of like the idea of helping other artists and my studio has become a haven for a lot of artists who needed a place for working.

- Just to see that, see you work now - And we all sit down and have lunch together and stuff like that so it's a very constructive atmosphere.

When Los Four got together we were trying to communicate to young people about making art and we started doing murals.

- Yeah, and I think for me that was fine art.

I didn't know about galleries or museums but I knew about murals and so like I'm that generation that was inspired by the murals of the Chicano movement.

- And I heard through Cheech that he bought one of your paintings.

- Yeah and here I am, yeah.

- Well here you are.

Coming here has been an experience to just hear and learn.

The same struggles happen even when you're a successful accomplished artist.

You just got to find humor and it's going to be okay.

You know, I'm just having a good time Great time actually doing my work and yes, I've been doing it for 50 years now.