William with his digital art assistant.
William teaching an art class in the Atomic Tiki Room at DECOPOLIS.
W William is a third generation, self-taught Tulsa artist who, for over 25 years, specialized in Trompe’ L’oeil murals and theatrical props & displays, for the home, business and entertainment industries. William has worked with decorators, artists and designers from all across the US and in Europe, from Tulsa to NY City, Dallas to London. His work has been featured in local and national magazines like Oklahoma Magazine, Distinctive Homes of Miami and the Beaches, and Traditional Homes Magazines.
William has on numerous occasions done work in Florida including projects at Disney World. On one of his last projects for Disney’s “Golden Oak” luxury resort community, the contractor was so impressed with his teams work that he did something he said he had never done before, contacted Disney CEO Bob Iger to have him come down and see what William’s team had done. Bob was so impressed with the work that he invited them to work for him as Disney Imagineers. William chose to stay in Tulsa and use his talents to continue creating DECOPOLIS, which he hopes will someday grow into a much larger attraction.
Partial List of Artistic Accomplishments.
*Founder of the DECOPOLIS Tulsa Art Deco Museum.
*Designed and painted one of the largest mural projects in Oklahoma history, for the WinStar Casino, which took almost 2 years to complete. The project was comprised of a suite of five large ceiling murals of which the central domed mural was five stories across.
*2009 International Mayfest poster artist. For over a decade painted each years Mayfest "Kite", adding to the large scale mural on Main street in Downtown Tulsa.
*Classical portraiture art including one of Alice Brown Davis the first female Chief of the 5 Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma, to hang in the Oklahoma State Capitol Building.
*Commissioned by the City of Tulsa to paint a suite of Historic Murals in the new Central Center at Central Park.
*Worked with JMC Studios to do numerous projects including theatrical style, large scale props and backgrounds for the traveling “History of the Bible” exhibit, and later an Art Deco styled mural for the new “Museum of the Bible” in Washington DC. Also in partnership with JMC studios spent a month in London UK completing a “Cityscape” backdrop composed of 2-D and 3-D sculpted components for a Television studio and Theater.
*Created a giant gateway for the grand opening ceremony of Tulsa’s new Gathering Place park and has worked with Tulsa’s Guthrie Green to create large theatrical backdrops for events held at their outdoor stage.
*Opened a retail store, visitor center and attraction, called DECOPOLIS, on Route 66 in Tulsa for which he designs and creates unique products, including art deco styled posters, cards, and t-shirts & souvenirs. He has also designed and built unique, themed environments within DECOPOLIS.
*Created the TulsaRama Gang comic strip with its cast of characters and their adventures in Jazz Age Tulsa.
Below: "Black Mesa Oklahoma" painting, 3'X 8' acrylic on canvas, by William A. Franklin
Ceiling Artwork by William The Artist
Tulsa Residence Foyers
This mural project was for a foyer in a clients home in Tulsa Oklahoma. The client wanted the works to be in an old world style with a subtle color palette. The doorway leading to a courtyard pool area needed a "Little something to dress it up." so William conceived of painting faux, sculpted stone elements around it with a "sculpted" frame having an old world painting inside. Then William also added coordinating elements up a grand staircase and in other areas of the homes foyer.
More Foyers and Stairwells
Restrooms - Powder Baths
WINSTAR WORLD CASINO
This mural project was perhaps the largest in Oklahoma history. The main first phase consisted of ceiling murals depicting 5 great cities of the world, Rome, London, Paris, Madrid, & Beijing. The canvas panels were primarily painted in Tulsa, then the taken to the Casino to be applied to the ceilings and completed there.
This mural is about 5 stories across and is meant to represent the great city of Rome.
This is the central panel of the Rome mural underway. You can get a sense of the scale for this panel by noticing the tables in the background. Before the painting was done on any of these murals, months of research and designing took place. The canvas alone for the 5 murals cost over $20,000 and came in 14 foot wide rolls. If all the rolls were attached together and laid out the canvas would have reached from the top of Tulsa's BOK tower to the ground.
Here the Rome mural is being installed. Again for scale, notice the small 6 foot tall red scaffolding on top of the main scaffolding, or the person in the scissor lift off to the right.
Another view of the Rome mural.
Here is the ceiling representing London.
And the ceiling representing Madrid.
Paris.
And Beijing.
Another part of the Winstar World Casino project William did was several dining room ceilings in the resort hotel. This ceiling first had a shimmering metallic effect brushed on, and large scrollwork was then painted on top.
Below: Here is a fun "Tulsa Scissortail" mural William did, and was used in some advertisements!
THEMED ENVIRONMENTS - THEATRICAL BACKDROPS - SCULPTURE WORK
London Television Studio Project
LONDON ENGLAND project in partnership with JMC Studios. Our task was to create a stage set backdrop for a live audience television show in London. The stage featured the London Skyline replite with a London Bridge that raised and lowered, and Rotating London Eye Ferris Wheel. Twinkling fiber optics were installed in the tiny buildings in the far background, and the scene wrapped the entire theater area and columns within the theater.
William spent a month in London with the JMC team painting buildings that wrapped the theater, including every tiny building you see in the far background. Not seen in these photos were additional, highly detailed, 3-D buildings that were set on the stage in front of the background buildings which added further depth and dimension to the London Skyline effect.
Tulsa's Gathering Place, Grand Opening Gateway
The Gathering Place, developed by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, held its grand opening in 2019. At over $400 million dollars, the park was the largest private gift to a public park in US history. William was asked to create a large scale, temporary gateway, for the opening ceremony which was to be broadcast nation wide.
The gateway stretched 60 feet across one of the roadway entrances to the park. The doors which would open and swing inward letting in the first guests, were 14 feet tall and featured the parks logo.
To create the "stonework", William took photos of the real stonework around the park itself for inspiration. Large panels of styrofoam were then carved to create the blocks.
After the blocks were carved, a protective coat mixed with sand, was applied to give even more texture. Then finally everything was painted to emulate real stone.
Some of William's team setting up the gateway the day before the opening ceremony.
Guthrie Green "Hawaiian Dreams Urban Luau" Stage Set
William jumped at the offer when he was asked if he would design and build a stage set full of fun for Guthrie Green's "Hawaiian Dreams Urban Luau".
Set with giant tiki columns on either side and a small hut from which the entertainers can enter and leave the stage. The backdrop was designed to be taken apart and stored for reuse.
It was great fun designing these tiki columns.
William standing next to one of the tikis, drawn up with chalk and ready to start painting.
William and his team setting up scaffolding to continue setting up the tiki columns for either side of the stage.
William & his team offer the finest in class & sophistication... "For Oklahoma"
Let the fun begin!
AAA Route 66 Road Fest!
To gear up for the Route 66 Centennial celebrations. AAA commissioned William to be the lead designer for the huge AAA Route 66 Road Fest! The project required thousands of hours of research, design work, sketches and renderings, and numerous meetings with writers, production designers, and set builders.
The Road Fest featured Route 66 through the decades with large, octagonal "pods" that guests would enter to experience and learn about Route 66 through the eyes of each decade.
For each "decade pod" William needed to first determine the main historical events that influenced Route 66 during that decade, would then work to gather up imagery and "interesting facts" related to those events. Then he would create vision boards featuring a different color scheme for each decade, cohesive color and design elements for the decade, and then work all of that together to create a main "feature element" to be constructed in each pod, the unique "entrance elements" for each pod, and the look of the walls inside each as well.
Below: Exterior, main entrance design for the 1920's octagon.
Below: Birds eye view of the Octagon showing the suggested positioning of the cars, the main "build" item which was to be a 1920's Phillips 66 gas station, and other feature elements.
Below: The main "build" element for the 1920's octagon was to be the Phillips 66 gas station.
Below: The interior wall designs for the 1920's octagon.
Below: Photo of the final build!
Below: Different elements William designed for the 1930"s Road Fest displays.
Below: Different elements William designed for the 1940"s Road Fest displays.
Below: Different elements William designed for the 1950"s Road Fest displays. First is an intial concept that was later changed to a Sci-Fi Theater.
Below: Different elements William designed for the 1960"s Road Fest displays.
Below: Different elements William designed for the 1970"s Road Fest displays.
Various DECOPOLIS Projects
This relief sculpture was created for the DECOPOLIS Tulsa Art Deco Museum. Rather than create just a painting, William carved this piece out of a high grade styrofoam, in low relief. This technique gives a little extra magic and dimension to the artwork.
To add a little more magic to DECOPOLIS William created an Art Deco style castle to serve as an entrance to the upstairs area which has lots of Disney items along with old fashioned kids books and toys. We call this area of the store FableRealm.
Couple of the giant gear mechanisms William created to go on top of the DECOPOLIS Mesmer Island Outpost shop that used to be inside the Mother Road Market on Tulsa's Route 66.
Our new DECOPOLIS Discovitorium & TulsaRama! locatons on Route 66!
Inital concept and layout for the Wizard of DECOPOLIS's Laboratory to be inside the Discovitorium
Inital concept and layout for FableRealm & Mesmer Island sections of the Discovitorium
Above: View of Mesmer Island inside the Discovitorium!
View inside the current, temporary location of the DECOPOLIS Tulsa Art Deco Museum. William designed, built and finished each of the "buildings" !
Below: Views inside the DECOPOLIS TulsaRama Ice Cream Parlor. Everthing was designed, built and painted by William.
Below: William's DECOPOLIS, FableRealm Bookstore! All the room theming was designed, built, sculpted and painted by William. The "stories" behind FableRealm were written by William.
Below: A peek inside one of the buildings in FableRealm Village created by William.
Below: At the edge of the village is the Mystic Grotto which has a secret passageway into FableRealm Castle itself! Watch out for the Dragon!
Below: One of the rooms inside FableRealm Castle! The room designed, built and painted by William.
PORTRAITURE
Some of William's earliest paid commissions were for portraits. Not every artist can do fine portraiture and one of William's proudest moments was when he was selected by Oklahoma Senator Charles Ford, and Commissioned by Senator A.J. Griffin & the Women of the 56th Legislature, to paint a portrait of Alice Brown Davis to hang in the Oklahoma State Capitol building.
Excerpt from a SEMINOLE NATION MUSEUM article...
"On May 2nd 2018, artist William Franklin was honored at the Oklahoma State Capitol with the unveiling of his commissioned artwork, a portrait of Alice Brown Davis. Alice was the first woman to serve as Chief of the Five Civilized Tribes [Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muscogee(Creek), and Seminole]. She was appointed Chief in July of 1922 by President Warren G. Harding. Her selection as leader of the Seminole people became national – and international - news. Newspapers and radio stations across the US hailed the “Woman Chieftain of the Seminoles” and made the 70 year-old Wewokan a minor celebrity of the Jazz Age.
William Franklin was accompanied on this historic occasion by Chief Chilcoat of the Seminole Nation and Miss Seminole Nation. William is now the 33rd artist to have his work on permanent display in the halls of our State Capitol."
Image of Alice Brown Davis from which William was asked to do the portrait..
William at the Capitol building during the unveiling ceremony.
While researching his subject, William found that Alice Brown spoke of fond memories of her time as superintendent of the Seminole girls' school, Emahaka. William decided to add her beloved school into the background of her portrait.
DIGITAL ART & Product Design
In recent years William has enjoyed learning the suite of Adobe Photoshop programs. This is quite handy when creating rough draft renderings for art projects from logo's and signage to props & displays, character design, and for creating artistic imagery for use on products like souvenirs, art prints, book covers, and more!
Once an image is created like this, it can then be used on multiple products like: T-shirts, Mugs, Posters & Postcards, Magnets, Keychains, Trading Pins, and more!
William created this Tulsa Route 66 design, for tourists & locals alike, featuring numerous fun Route 66 landmarks that can be found in and near Tulsa.
A few of the stickers designed by William for DECOPOLIS
Souvenir, trading pins, designed by William for DECOPOLIS
Below: William has created dozens and dozens of poster art pieces.
And numerous card designs, including these DECOPOLIS Christmas Cards
Logo Design & Branding
William has created logos and branding for numerous companies (including of course his own DECOPOLIS Discovitorium, DECOPOLIS TulsaRama, DECOPOLIS FableRealm Bookstore, DECOPOLIS Tulsa Art Deco Museum)
Below are some Logos and Branding samples done for LOOK Eyewear & Eyewear in Tulsa.
DECOPOLIS TulsaRama! Gang! COMICS
One of William's ventures is a comic strip series. William very much admires Walt Disney and thought it would be fun if he created a cast of characters of his own for DECOPOLIS. They will act as friendly guides throughout the Museum and shops, and each comic strip features a "Fun Fact", game or puzzle!
Some of William's earliest sketches of the primary characters. Bottom left to right: Derby Dash, Petey Purrsalot, Daisy Diggs & Patty Paws.
Click on the above link to see more Funnies & Fun Facts!.
William's DECOPOLIS, TulsaRama Gang characters travel throughout time and space on many fun adventures!
And the DECOPOLIS, TulsaRama Gang characters love exploring Mesmer Island! But who doesn't?
Art Deco Paintings!
William loves the Art Deco style ,and one year was asked to create the poster art for Tulsa's International Mayfest, arts festival. While doing so he had the notion that Tulsa should have an Art Deco Museum. William is the founder of the Tulsa Art Deco Museum. Below is some of the artwork he has created in the Art Deco style.
Above: The painting "Spirit of Tulsa" by William A. Franklin, was painted in 2009 for the Tulsa International Mayfest to be used as that years promotional poster art.
Below: William next to his painting at the unveiling ceremony.
Below: A mural painted for the "Museum of the Bible" in Washington DC. William was asked to create a mural that would pay homage to the 1922 structures previous, historic use of being a large, cold storage, warehouse and distribution center.
Below: "The Messenger" Lady Aveya, the Regent of DECOPOLIS with a messenger Gazelle. William is writing a series of books about the Wizard of DECOPOLIS. DECOPOLIS "The Deco City" a Tulsa that is both of the past and future, is run in part by Lady Aveya. Acrylic on Canvas 75" X 64"
Below: "Tulsa Skyport" painting featuring Lindy Hopper, Another character in the DECOPOLIS books. William was inspired by Tulsa's amazing Aviation and Art Deco history when he created this painting. Acrylic on Canvas 80" X 64"
Above: Art Deco Ceiling Mural by William. William first covered the ceiling in a shimmering metallic gold, then used semi-translucent glazes and paints to create this mural.
Above: Art Deco mural in a wine closet using metallic paints and glazes.
Above: Art Deco, Goddess of oil poster. Digital art by William A. Franklin
Below: A pair of murals William painted for Tulsa's "Central Center, at Central Park". To help decide what to paint in this newly built center, located just outside of downtown Tulsa, William set about doing some research to see what may have been on or near the property in the past. William discovered that the new building and park were built on land that used to have a public swimming pool and park on it. Across the street there used to be a school, and a trolley would run down that street. Using old photos William recreated scenes depicting the history of the area the new park and center were now inhabiting.
Below: A couple of fun, digital art pieces by William featuring "The Wizard of DECOPOLIS" You may have heard of Steampunk, but William is a fan of Decopunk and the artwork in his fantasy series, featuring the story of the future DECOPOLIS, is filled with fun Decopunk elements. In the background of the first image is the Wizards starship the DSS Astrigera. In the second image we can see the Wizard meeting Flapper the Scissortail Flycatcher for the first time. Below is the pyramid at the top of the Philtower which houses the Wizards secret laboratory when he travels to 1920'-30's Tulsa.
