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....

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.

print days....

silkscreening is seriously one of the most physically and emotionally draining activities i partake in. i swear to god it's 90% magic. how else can you explain 3 screens being exposed for the same time giving three different results.

needless to say, finishing my "traditional" pieces for denver first friday (june 5th!), has just opened up all my time to focus on my print series edition melissa and i came up with to finish around the show. the fact the blackhawks were a complete embarasment today doesn't help matters much either.

bloody neighbor.

i spent all day yesterday in a tattoo shop seeing my friend jon get a giant boat tattoo from our friend kyle. while there i hammered out the last sketches for my denver stuff...

so today, i'm finally getting to work. feels pretty great. lots of gesso everywhere... i'm about to experiment with coloring my gesso for this hideous painting i'm painting over. not even documenting it's existence first. but i'm stoaked about denver now. got some big pieces coming, and some small extremely affordable pieces that i might put up on my etsy or even build a shop on my website if they don't sell. they are gonna be hot!

so back to work. enjoy today. drink some beer. listen to as cities burn. call your grandma incase you forgot to on mothers day. cause i did. then she called to yell at me this morning.

prognosis negative

turns out i don't have gal bladder sludge, infact the doctor called me today to tell me all of my tests came back 100% healthy. looks like this guy is going uninsured for the next 3 months. i'll just hold on to the bengay.

i'm in NYC for the week. Melissa and I are waiting to hear from a friend for lunch. thought i'd take this time to post some pictures from the mononivore show for everyone who couldn't make it...

a couple of low quality gallery views...





all images are silk screen and india ink on gessoed paper. each panel is 18x24 to give you an idea of the scale....

salmon/corn installation

As if this week wasn't big and busy enough, I also installed a sculpture i've been working on for the last few months at the Hull House in chicago this week. If you're not familiar with the hull house, they are a group created by Jane Addams to give social services, education, and support to chicago citizens, especially youth. One of their big initiatives is a new program teaching about sustainable eating, including an urban farm on the UIC campus and a weekly free soup event with guest chefs coming in to talk about these sort of topics. In short, it's a great place and I'm honored and extremely pleased to be able to install here.

About the piece. It's titled "Salmon! Now eating corn and loving it." and is a response to the extremely mind blowing facts that farm raised salmon are now being bred to eat a heavily grain diet, and in doing so are loosing their omega 3s and have become the most highly medicated live stock.

The piece is going to be up for a week, and i'm planning to try and photograph it everyday and post here to hopefully get some interesting evidence of it's returning to the earth via animal eating

check back to see what happens...

the mononivores is up

the show at GBU/UIC is officially up. turns out hanging a solo show is dramatically more difficult then expected. either way, here it is! i'm excited about the opening thursday....

a perfect crisp waffle potato

too much to do. finished printing the show posters after several mishaps. i need new inks. drew more corn. drilled some holes in a historical building.

almost done. show goes up friday... well see how i feel about it then...

mononivore show details

The final details for the MONONIVORE show have finally been knocked out! i'm really excited about putting up (and finishing YIKES!) all this work...

The show will be up at the GBU Gallery in the Art and Design hall (400 S peoria st) on the 5th floor at U of I Chicago from April 27th-30. I'll be having an "opening" reception on the 30th at 7-830pm. afterwords, we will be walking a block north to Jak's Tap to enjoy some adult beverages.

I would love for anyone able to come see this show to come see it.

truck meet body

extremely long weekend full of extremely sweet and long hangs. needless to say, almost nothing that was supposed to get done did. i need a weekend from my weekend....