Frédéric Lère, after Beaux-Arts studies, stone carving and comics in France, arrived in New York in 1984 to specialize in mural painting. He then met painter Mark Beard and worked with him on theater sets and decorative painting jobs in New York, as well as in Europe. Frédéric's passion for circus dates back to memories of his grandfather, a trapeze acrobat at the Bouglione Circus in Paris. Hired at the age of sixteen for a tour of performances in the USA, he wasn't allowed to disembark in New York: he was recalled in France to fight in World War 1. Wounded in Verdun, he had to give up his acrobat dream. The tale of his unachieved dream passed from generation to generation. Lère never climbed a trapeze; in his childhood, he just looked at performances of traveling circuses, satisfied with the admiration of their extravagant feats.