Born in New York City in 1981, Francisco grew up around art and culture. His exposure to places like the MoMa and the MET shaped the way he looked at the world. Being a second generation American of Italian, English and Chinese decent has allowed him to interact with relatives from around the globe. When he was a young teenager his parents moved to Albuquerque, and even though he was far away from the center of the art world, he still immersed himself in art. This helped him to develop his interest in mixed media . The process continued through high school where he focused on ceramics and photography. Eventually he attended UNM where he obtained a Bachelors in Fine Arts. His main focus was photography throughout his undergraduate studies.




During college he met Jessica Gilmore who was also studying art studio. They became friends after their first collaboration and eventually married. Feeding off each others creativity they continued to critique one another helping to strengthen their respective work.

In 2007 they traveled to China to stay with relatives for over a month. This changed Francisco's view of himself as well as giving him first hand exposure to the inequality and injustice experienced in a authoritarian society, and has since affected his work immensely. The juxtaposition between beauty and tradition to the corrupt politics of "Communist China" is most evident in his piece - Weight On Suzhou. These and other historic and political themes continue to inspire future works.