The interim...

People really just don't appreciate negative space anymore

-Michael Owen Jones

So since I've returned from California I've been kind of bored. I'm working on house renovations and doing this T-shirt thing... but neither of those things seems to be all that consuming. In fact the T-shirt thing I just came up with because I needed something to do and maybe I could raise some money (though a limited run of a couple T-shirts is about as far from a get rich quick scheme as it gets). The weather is still sporadically shitty and I'm still fairly cooped up in my rural locale; a cause for much turmoil. Add to that the highly limited social life of being in a place where very few college educated 20 somethings want to be. Of course things will pick up as the soggy countryside dries out; like when I start playing soccer with the Spanish speaking chicken and duck farmers; and when I finally get back to work! But at the moment it's still just me aimlessly perusing social medias... editing things on photoshop... occasionally going on a run... watching old movies... trying to get through War and Peace.... and not much else. It's pretty rough.

As a metal sculptor the work season is fairly grueling. The work isn't easy, it's demanding, it's unhealthy, and most of all it's all consuming. I haven't really made anything in like two months and it's really getting under my skin. Of course once the intense metal work begins I generally look forward to a nice long respite period that comes with finishing some sculpture or another. The human condition is a bitch. But in actuality I'm happiest when I have burn marks all up my arms, when my fingers are all calloused and raw, when my face is smeared with dirt and my forehead has the impression left by the overtightened welding shield. And sure I complain and I moan about how tough and how much work I have to do, but it's only natural (everyones a martyr right).

I think the real judge of (artistic) character is not how well one maintains when the work is flowing in and things are busy, but how resolutely they deal with the interim periods, the negative space.

TRL (t-shirt request live) and my take on Hazel Dooney

As per usual: forgive my stupid entry-naming-tendency.

So Recently I've been reading the blog of Hazel Dooney ( hazeldooney.blogspot.com ) and I must say, it's quite interesting. The woman is a psuedo-celbrity-artist with an often embittered take on the overall mechanics behind the art world. Reading her blog has been kind of similar to watching those variably happy and depressing movies about famous artists which I love so much, except with an extra focus on economics. As for her artwork, for the most part, I'm not particularly excited (though there are some of her sketches which I do enjoy thoroughly), however I am also of the philosophy that my personal opinion has the same resonance as the buzzing of a fly . In any case her artwork is not the issue, it's what she has to say and how well she says it, that really got me thinking.

What really impresses me about this Hazel character is that she has no qualms about saying anything and everything and putting it out the world (not to mention she does it oh so elegantly) . Maybe it has to do with having reached a certain level of fame where people tend to hang more thoroughly on every-word you say, but whatever the reason may be, this ability is quite impressive to me. There is an unbearable amount of information circulating within the reach of our fingertips and to give unfettered accounts of ones personal thought process, placing it tangibly in the ether, is well... it's scary. I know I can't really do it.

There is much more I could say about all this but Brevity is the word of the moment.

Hazel I tip my hat to you.

Anyway, a couple people have asked for redesigned shirts and though I didn't follow every suggestion to the letter I did mess around a bit and I decided that these two additions were worth posting :

lets call it 13.

and 14.

The T-shirt Designs (part 2)

So the following post is a semi-comprehensive list of the T-shirt ideas and designs I plan on working with. What I need to do now is narrow down the playing field and decide between three designs which I want to further pursue. I will be printing three shirts.... at what quantity I'm not sure... two of them will definitely be black and white and I may consider doing the third one in color. But first I have to decide on the designs. So to help decide which shirts I will print I'm asking anyone who sees this to vote on which design(s) you like the best.

Hooray for Democracy!

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The first run of real T-shirt Designs

A few more roughed out t-shirt ideas.

more to come soon.

Zac Shavrick sings the hits.

Not really.

But I've decided to make a post about some phenomenal things which have come out of the movie and music industry, which may not be entirely recognized (well maybe some are and some aren't). I rarely spend much time putting down my thoughts on pop culture or music or movies, though in reality they are as ever present in my life as they are in everyone else's (I just have trouble admitting it).

First on my list is Andrew Bird. Though he is in no way obscure and is selling out concert halls world wide, I still place him at the top of my list. Mr. Bird is an anomaly in our generation of one sided and narrowly focused musicians. On top of a melodious voice, incredible whistling ability, virtuosic violin playing, not to mention adept handling of 5 or 6 other instruments he's also an inspiring song writer. Watching him perform live is like watching a great painter tackle a blank canvas, he plays a part of the song, loops it, then plays the next part on a different instrument; allowing you to watch him layer and create each of his compositions.

Next I will have to mention Paolo Nutini, the 20 year old scottish singer. Now he may not be as well rounded as Mr. Bird, but he packs quite a voice, in fact it's disturbingly good. Though not all his songs are amazing (and I will attribute that to age) the song Coming Up Easy is both lyrically beautifully and a showcase of this young mans talent.

As for the Movie industry, well I haven't had a chance to go out and see too many movies, but The Coen Brothers': A Serious Man quickly lodged itself high in my top 10 all time movies list.

I've lately been watching those movies about famous dead artists, and I must say; they are some of the most fascinating, intense and usually depressing movies you will ever see. It definitely worries me that the movies based on the careers of every great artists are so dower, but they are all similarly imbued with a spark of life that they cant be overlooked. I would have to say my favorites are: Rembrandt, The Horses Mouth (fictional), Lust for Life (Van Gogh) and Moulan Rouge (Toulouse lautrec).

Oh and Akira Kurisawa films, I can watch those all day (my favorite being RAN)!

...

I guess that wasn't very Pop, but it was fairly cultural.

go watch Paolo Nutini : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIQ2Rxh1k9Y

first attempt: simple t-shirt idea

white on black or black on white....

New T-Shirts.

So the first string of new ways in which I plan on raising a little capital is to do another run of T-shirts. I'm going to do three new designs using black on white/white on black. I haven't finalized any designs, but they are in the works at the moment. The real question now is how many do I print. So I figured I will simply take as many advance orders as possible and then base the final order on that.

The shirts will be all be 20 dollars with free shipping or 17 dollars if you buy it direct. I will be doing standard T-shirts and girls T's (and maybe a third thing).

If you have any desire for a shirt, or even think you might have a desire, just post a yes or a maybe in response to this blog.... or let me know in person, or by e-mail ( zac@zacmax.com ), or on facebook.

A strange twittering sensation (occasionally associated with Carpel Tunnel Syndrome)

Well I've always had a pragmatic view when it comes to new online trends, and twitter is no exception. I started out very apprehensive, actually to be honest I hated the idea (I still don't consider myself a huge proponent of the thing). After a while though its popularity and it's potential seemed something worth exploring. The fact that everything is searchable, it boosts google hits and opens you up to another extensively large social network.. well it seemed like something any sensible business minded artist should look into. And look into it I did. I mostly just followed the 15 or 20 people i knew on twitter and then a host of interesting artists and celebrities. It wasn't an earthshaking experience by any means. I would occasionally post a comment to this person or that one but usually I just mentioned my blog posts and well... not much else. Anyway my social networking popularity far from snowballed out of control (which was the greatest immediate permutation of a new social networking experience); maybe I am just not an adept social-networker, maybe I just don't have the dedication to the media thats needed for true transcendental twittering. Whatever the case, I didn't really give a shit (to put it plainly). The whole Twitter thing was kind of a backburner issue. I decided since it was a a moot enough point that anything seemed fair game, so i found found a batch-following applications and had myself a ball adding upwards of 500 people at a time (specifically those who seemed interested in art). Now here I was going about my business, happily friending 500 people in 20 minute intervals, waiting a couple days and then unfriending whoever didn't follow me, when all of a sudden my account gets removed. It turns out the higher ups at twitter got wind and decided to put the digital foot down. Apparently my actions were not entirely kosher. Oops. So the twitter-authorities (twitter-police?) suspended my account for the last month or so. I wrote them a nice long apologies, but they still made me wait a month. I guess now they feel that I've had sufficient time to repent, that I have come to alms with my seedy past, I am now fit to tweet again.

Alright world..

Well, I haven't posted too frequently these days. Maybe I caught a bit of the rampant lethargy that thrives in California. Anyway, I'm back in business. The seasons are changing, things are about to get busy and all that; and it is that business which I live for. So, aside from a brief mud-period which will occur in the next two to four weeks, it's looking like things are about to get serious. I'm going to start posting frequently again, what about, I'm not entirely sure.

One thing on my agenda for the upcoming months is to raise 30 some odd thousand dollars. You see my driving force, my Raison D'etra if you will, is to make sculpture and unfortunately my old shop is on the verge of collapse such that I don't feel comfortable working in it anymore. So I need to pour a concrete slab, get a prefab building and wire it up, should end up costing me around 30 grand. No small task. I have a couple ideas in mind, nothing concrete yet, obviously a bake sale is in the works. But I'm gonna need all the help I can get. I'll be looking to make money in every way possible, except maybe selling my body. So I'll have a whole line of T-shirts in the works, small scale sculptures, large scale sculptures and even one mammoth invest-based project as the summers opus. Also man power will be important, I'm gonna need willing and able volunteers who want to come in and get dirty and live off the fat of the land and Henry David Thoreau it for a weekend or two, because not only do I want to rebuild the shop but I'm looking to utilize the entire ten acres of property which it sits on (fruits, vegetables, art shows, live music, living spaces, art studios, the works). Oh yeah, did I mention: Fuck the economy.

LES Art Show

Thanks everyone who showed up.

If your not featured in these pictures and you showed up it's not because I don't like you I just don't have a photo of you.

If you didn't make it, that's okay, I don't much like going to art openings myself (am I allowed to say that?) unless they have a really good spread (and the cheese was pretty good at this one), the show will be up until March 29th. Oh and there will be a Closing show on Thursday March 25th.

The gallery hours are 11 am to 5pm sunday-friday and 12pm to 6pm on saturday. If you stop in, let me know what you think, even if you think it's all rubbish, because sometimes criticism is better than nothing (and it's way better than Viagra spam comments).

Much love again to all who showed and all those who attended the post-show-bar-fiasco, I had a great time.