spring art

spring is here. a leaf is about to turn...

I have two blogs now, which is stupid. This is the studio art and random musings one. The other one is all photo based.

here's the link to the photo one... http://thegreatestescapist.tumblr.com/

it currently gets updated alot more than this one.


Second... thought i'd post some photos of some work i recently have finished... some of these will be in my thesis show this month. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it tho...

for now, heres some art

New ideas, a new mix, a day of truancy

i'm working on a new blog, or hosting site, or whatever to try and put up photos and some videos more regularly. 2009 caused a back up of photos that need to get thru the system and be shown. It isn't by any means my favorite work to date, but there are a few beautiful things i found this past year... and hopefully if i come up with a good system, i'll start putting all of this expensive machinery to use. Maybe i can actually get my photos up for sale before the end of this year... well see...

In other news, a while back a room mate and myself had a conversation about our musical up bringing of sorts, and just how we have traveled fairly different paths to bring us to the musical place we both are at now. we agreed to make each other mixes, and i decided to go back in the vault and find the music that really inspired me at the most pivitol times, and still proves to be some of my favorite records. It's a 2 disc set (43 songs) of music made specifically thru 1996 - 2003, and runs the gauntlet from folky billy bragg, to moderately embarassing pop punk, to hard core, to the beginnings of indie and when emo was still a genre.

you can download it here... http://www.sendspace.com/file/96cg86

Let me know what you think... and hopefully i'll get those photos up one day.

top of 2009

I love lists. i love music. naturally i love the annual best of lists. It's fun to expose people to some of the music that really inspired and entertained you thru out the year, and hopefully get to find out about some new stuff yourself... so here is mine, including a link to download a play list of some of my favorite tracks from the mentioned records. hopefully you dig some of this...

1. Gregory allan Isakov - The Empty Northern Hemishpere.
(there is nothing ground breaking or new in this record. infact, you might not even like it much after the first listen, but after a few plays it will sink in and hit you... this is an amazing record. It's a record that will seriously stand up for ever, cause it's not fitting a trend, it's just solid, incredible song writing)

2. Bruce Peninsula - A mountain is a mouth
(this is the single coolest record you will hear all year. Canadians making 19th century southern gospel and slave music. think Tom waits meets anathallo)

3. Owen - New Leaves
(it's owen...)

4. Mew - No More Stories...
(it's mew... and they are successfully going further in making themselves one of the most unique bands ever... if only they didn't have those 2 slow long songs in the middle of the record)

5. Animal Collective - merryweather
(if you haven't heard this record.. you probably lived under a rock for all of 2009)

6. Nurses - Apple Acres
(3 dudes, lots of basketball jerseys, a ton of keyboards, and... one weird danielson moves to portland record)

7.Fanfarlo - reservoir
(horrible band name, incredible record. arcade fire meets clap your hands say yeah... but better then both)

8. Converge - ave to fall
(i fought it for years... but i officially love this band, and this record sealed the deal. and was definitely the nail in that coffin. BRUTAL)

9. Passion Pit - Manners
(this years mgmt? but better... cause they could write an entire record that was listenable... and listen to this record we did... ALOT)

10. Avett Brothers - I and love and you
(they added more instruments, stopped writing (as many) songs about pretty girls, and made an incredible record that got you excited for whats next)

11. Mono - hymn to the immortal wind
(i don't understand why i haven't seen this on any lists. this record is amazing. the first time i listened to it, i was walking to dinner in vegas, and upon getting to my restaurant walked around the strip for another hour till the record ended, because it's that good)

12. Kyte - Science for the living
(scottish electronic rock similair to sigur ros... if they were scottish electronic)

13. Throw me the statue - Purpleface
(just an EP, but possible the best recording of the year... if it wasn't for how much the ful length let me down this would be so much higher.... purchase this EP immediately.)

14. Phoenix - Wolfgang amadeus phoenix
(this record blew my mind when it came out... then a couple weeks later it lost it's appeal... hence it being this low)

15. Pearl Jam - The fixer
(it's pearl jam... and totally kicking ass)

OTHER NOTEWORTHY RECORDS

Freelance Whales - Weathervanes
(much like phoenix, i loved this record when i first heard it... then got bored... but am back on now... it's fresh still so maybe ill change my mind again, either way.. it's good)

Coconut records - Davy
(if i went n play counts alone this would be my favorite record of the year... but... it's not really that good... but it's a fun listen

Art brut - art brut v satan
(much like cocnut records... i listen to this record like CRAZY last spring. it is fun and awesome... but far from "best" of the year.)

Local Native - gorilla manor
(see freelance whales)

As Cities Burn - Hell or high water
(one of my total favorite bands... in retrospect this record should be in the top 15... but.. i guess i like this song at the end of a play list?... well come back to this record in time i think...)



Hopefully you are interested in some of this... if you want to listen to some of these bands... you can download the play list HERE: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YDS4VNTI

2010: a space odyssey

so this is the year of the space odyssey.... thankfully the year didn't begin with apes killing each other... well.. mine didn't atleast..

finally getting at my photos from the trip. i stand by my belief that things look better when it's cold. unfortunately, things look better when you know how to stand still and hold a camera... which didn't happen much this last month...

either way, i love this photo, so take it with you until i figure out the best way to show the rest of these to the world..

blizzards brats and beer

Back from europe. cab at 4 am (or 5 am) from Utrecht to amsterdam. fly amsterdam to warsaw. fly the craziest flight of my life from warsaw to toronto. arrive 2 hours late. get excited about a delayed flight for the first time ever. until that delayed flight turn into a 3 hour delay. try to eat tim hortons. end up wanting to puke. fly toronto to chicago. get in a disgruntled cab home.

yesterday will likely go down in the books as the most ridiculous travel day of my life.

europe was cold. paris was on strike (the whole city. i'm serious) munich was full and delicious. andechs kloster beer is the best beer in europe. some of the best in the world actually. learned about nazis. sa an old man balance on a wine bottle. there was a blizzard. europe shut down. saw an amazing mondrian/picasso/cezzane exhibit in den haag, walked around in the snow alot. drank lots of "coffee" (which.. is a universal term for lots of different coffee based beverages). ate more bread then usual (which.. is alot). thought i had parisites. had a great time.

now it's time for christmas, and getting melissa settled in, and editing photos and videos, and trying to enjoy the rest of my vacation on what little money is left from europe. strikes and blizzards cause for alot of unexpected expenses.

merry christmas folks.

show tonight

The show at gold star is tonight. I'm showering for the first time in recent memory. i'm even gonna change this shirt i've been wearing for 3 days. it's gonna be a party. hopefully.

i'm showing more then i thought i could, which is rad.

I'm gonna break out the new flip cam and get some footage of the shenanigans...


worst case scenario i use it to bludgen my own head so this head ache goes away.

Upcomming group show

It's been awhile. mainly cause i've been busy. i bought a video camera. shit's about to get weird. either way all of that art work is starting to pay off...

December 5th, at 7pm, I will be in a group show at Gold Star Bar in Chicago (1755 W Division St, Chicago IL). I'm not really sure what the show is gonna be like, or what exactly i will show thanks to my work being HUGE, and this being a group show with limited room. Either way, I'm excited to be showing at home with some new artists, and showing some of the ridiculous amounts of crap i've been making. If you are in Chicago you should come. It is gonna be fun.

After the show, i'll be jumping across the Pond for a few weeks full of romantic adventure comedy. for good measure, we might throw some suspense in there. who knows.

Now i need to go sew some things. and turn off this new john mayer... what a let down.

new work! it's huge!

I cleaned up my studio the other day, and realized i had finished something like 11 paintings in the last few months. I'm pretty happy with almost all of them, which feels pretty good. Alot of these are moving into kind of a crazy direction that i'm still trying to figure out exactly, but i'm excited about where ever that is going. here is a handful of the things i've finished. I've your remotely interested in helping any of these find a home, let me know...


"I remember it being colder" 12"x20" (apx). acrylic, charcoal, and ink on canvas


"Fantastic" 30"x12". Acrylic, ink, on canvas


(Untitled) 55"x40". Acrylic, ink, oil stick, charcoal on canvas


"Castle and Cannons" 24"x24". ink on panel


"Have You Ever Had Screaming Children Chase You Down the Street Simply for the Fun of It?" 4'x6'. ink, enamel, and charcoal on panel


"Mark me Down as Whatever" 4.5'x4'. ink, collage on panel


"Why am I Not the Brave Bird" 5'x4'. ink, collage on panel.


Bird print. 12"x12". 3 color print, set of 15. White layer done by hand, so all 15 are completely different.

the snake the cross the crown documentary

A month or so ago i wrote up a big blog post about the Snake the cross the crown documentary. The film debuted this weekend at the louisville film festival, and is now up for preorder on the bands merch store. This is the ONLY way you can get it, but i promise you it is 100% worth whatever you spend on it. it comes with the DVD and an entire album of bsides, live tracks and alternate versions. These extra songs are just as amazing as everything on their previous records.

you can check out the extended trailer right here...




If you want information or would like to preorder it, head to these sites...

Watch trailer:
http://www.snakecrosscrown.com

Read more about the film:
http://www.equalvision.com/news/show/485

order it, watch it, show it to your friends.

new website!!

People,

i have a new website. i spent a ton of time on it (and to be completely honest, the new photo section still isn't complete, but who's counting?) and i think i'm proud of it... maybe?

in true zach clark fashion, it's already slightly out of date solely because of the speed i'm pumping out new work right now, but i'm gonna try to be on top of it this one. And i've got this blog you're reading.. so hopefully between the two, those of you who care to be can stay informed.

www.thegreatestescapist.com

If you've been to my old site, you'll probably have to reload the page for the new one to come up. internet caches are jerks like that..

times of transition

Dear chicago by ryan adams will be a good song forever.

It's the end of september. the air is getting crisper. I've started home improvements again.


i thought i had more to say then that.

i'm gonna go put my headphones on now.

new owen video

On the topic os listening to owen... watch this video... it's amazing

turning over new leaves. fall in chicago.

it's that time of year that the best season in chicago is upon us. you can ride your bike without getting disgusting, your don't need a heating blanket, and back yard fires are at the height of their practicality. It's a great time to be back in chicago and will most likely be the times i miss most once I leave.

Being that i'm back in chicago, I've been working like a mad man. Being able to work larger again has been like a drug. These all currently look like a fucking mess of non sense... and most likely some of them will stay there... but currently heres some works in progress.

I tend to work from the literature i've been reading, but failed foreign aid to africa isn't the most inspiring of topics. That being said, ive started to work more about myself, back in the days or touring, my weird dreams and obsessions of rats... i'm not sure exactly.

Either way, here they are with size info. Tell me what you think. I'm serious. unless you're just gonna tell me it looks "carolesque".. in that scenario just keep your god damn trap shut.

oh and.. Listen to owen, read a moveable feat, and stay away from hamms. i promise all of these things are in your best interest.

2.5'x1.5'


2'x'2


2.5'x1.5' apx


two canvases, each 5'x1'


5'x4'

stumped

ever hate everything you make? good. me too...

loose ends (clean out)

Lastly on my Clean out posts, there is a grip of stuff that just doesn't make sense in my body of work, is awkward, or for some other reason just won't make it to the website, but i like anyways... here they are...

mononivores rejects (clean out)

A few months back, i put up my show about corn called "The Mononivores", and had a handful of rejects that didn't end up making the cut for the show, and thus, won't be on my website...

figured i would post a few here....

original beer drawings (clean out)

I'm doing all the clean up and selecting of images and pieces for my new website, and am coming across alot of stuff i like, but don't have room for/don't fit with the rest of the site, but i still wanna put up somewhere...

I'm gonna do this in shifts... so the posts are at least somewhat cohesive...

First these are the original beer drawings that i used for the source images of my beer print set (which i still have a few for sale... hopefully i get a store figured out on my site one day...)

new shirts designs!

I did some new designs for my friend's band These green eye a few weeks ago. Pretty stoaked on both of them. They sent me some sample photos, so i thought i'd put em up.





Otherwise... working on the website still... it's getting put on the back burner while i finish up everything here in NYC before i go back to chicago. Can't believe 3 months went this quickly...


oh, and avoid southern tier's cremme brulee stout at all costs. bum out. I fully support all of their other beers tho. so drink those.

We got the money but we don't want the problems.

I'm writing this from a rather cramped seat on the mega bus from albany back home to NYC. I was extremely lucky to get out of the city this weekend and upstate to spend time with some great people, and have an overall artistically rejuvinating weekend.

we spent some time in a lake house in the mountains with a communal sleeping room. we had some great conversations about things i rarely think about anymore, but definitely got my mind moving. I got to hear and see some new things that got me realy excited.

one of the highlights of the weekend was getting a chance to see a near finished version of a documentary 2 years in the making about The Snake The Cross The Crown. Admittedly, this is one of my favorite bands, but i think it's a story all too true and common, and you don't need to know this band to have the words and feelings they talk about in this film move you. This is one of the most intimate films about a band and music i have ever seen. I think when this film comes out later this year it has the ability to really move a ton of people and make them think and put things in perspective. unfortunately, it most likely won't, whether that's me being a cynic or a realist i don't know, but that's what the entire film seems to be about. It will probably just be for a lucky few. All i do know is today I've got a fresh pair of eyes and ears in my head thanks to watching it. I truly believe that great art breeds more art. Often when i see or hear something that honestly moves me, it pushes me to want to try and create something incredible that might move someone even the slightest bit as much as the previous did for me. if nothing else it is atleast the catalyst. (After reading that, it seems kind of competitive. I don't think it's supposed to tho). Maybe that is all that matters...



I'm not excited to leave new york, but i'm excited to get this new year underway and see what i'm pushed to.

All we can do is hope for the best.... And stay positive.

something big

i have an idea crazy enough it might work.