How ‘Stella’ Got Its Art Groove

Frank Cummings spent eight grueling weeks working on the movie “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” but don’t look for him on the big screen.

Instead, look for his intricate woodwork, from furniture to sculptures.

Cummings, an artist and art professor at Cal State Fullerton, is the real-life artist behind the artwork of the lead character in the movie, which opens today.

Stella, played by Angela Bassett, is a fortysomething stockbroker who abandoned her passion for art for her career.

But the evidence of Stella’s past as an artist fills her home in the wooden pieces that Cummings created.

Cummings has artwork on permanent display in the White House Craft Collection and Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, but most of his work is held by private collectors.

From the private collections, Twentieth Century Fox set designers selected five vessels, a hall tree and two cabinets.

The studio also commissioned Cummings to create three new pieces: two bar stools and Stella’s computer desk.

While Cummings scrambled to make the deadline, he underwent major surgery to remove cancerous tumors.

He also missed the first four weeks of the fall semester.

“It was the worst and the very best time in my life,” Cummings said. “I wanted to cry, yet I was thinking, ‘Wow, look what I’ve done.’ ”

The reality finally hit when he and his wife, CC, visited the movie set in Granada Hills and saw the pieces in their film habitat.

Cummings met director Kevin Rodney Sullivan, who threw his arms around Cummings, saying the artwork was exactly what they needed.

Cummings was not invited to the Aug. 3 premiere but did attend a special screening for cast and crew.

Watching the movie was like playing what Cummings described as a game of “Where’s Waldo?”

He spent the two hours trying to catch any glimpse of his pieces.

One of the best shots came as the camera closed in on Stella’s son, sitting down on one of the stools.

“It was just perfect,” Cummings said. “It was like seeing your little baby.”

Cummings has a screen credit and a few slides of film shots as mementos.

He said he’ll pick up a copy when it is released on video and might even pay to see it again.

For now, it’s back to work. Cummings is teaching three classes this fall and working on getting his artwork seen.

“Film is a whole other world,” he said. “I’m an artist.”