Born on the California Central Coast, Ben Fronckowiak grew up in a family of artists.  He remembers his grandparents, parents, and uncles painting or working on artistic projects around him. He was inspired by film directors, namely Tim Burton, Guillermo Del Toro, and Pedro Almodovar as well as fine artists such as Picasso and Francis Bacon.  He studied at the UCLA Film and Television School (B.A. Film, Television, and Digital Media, Magna Cum Laude) where he filmed a documentary backstage at a transgender/transsexual venue, Viva Sex's Club Illusion.  This experience, Fronckowiak says, "inspired my painting tremendously."  He began painting murals in the Lower East Side, Manhattan, and was then commissioned to paint a restaurant in Chinatown, Hou Yi Hotpot.