An Introduction

FLAT~WORK - Zak's Pick is organized in chronological order, from now to the beginning in 1964.  Even though I began drawing in grade school, until entering the University it was only a curious pastime.  The black and white drawings from the University days are mostly ink on cloth with some white acrylic and ink.  These keepers were literally one in a hundred or more from drawing binges, they somehow survived the many moves that 7 years of college life required.  Another test of preference has been that these images have stayed on the walls while making space for new works, some for decades.

There is a gap in the drawings, in the 70's I ran two businesses, built a family cabin and raised teenage kids.  That left only time for how to do it drawings for my craft.  During that period I pushed the craft into art doing creative wood work and hand made homes.  The 80's brought a renaissance in art, drawing leading the way.  First the Spirit Tree series, then on its heels, the Moraine series.  In the first series I learned how to segment the landscape into pieces connected with relation to the other parts, then the sensuous forms of the Moraines along the upper Madison and Yellowstone rivers.  The voluptuous forms together with strong lines of ditches, fences, cliffs, and river banks lead to a long series.

Another set of interruptions - divorce, mistress, loss of property and a near fatal accident washed me into constructing a mega-home in Missouri.  Exhausted, I wandered home to Montana and, a well head of creative energy pent up in the terrible years, began breaking loose.  The Three Trees series followed by the Cartoon series combined with 7 years of stone and steel sculpting ensued.  Drawing and pre-drawing for the flat work and stone work has been a major period of creative living, 97 thru 04.  This latest period has lead to the publishing of the first Useful Art Book in 2002, and the Processes book, 2004.  And now this publication, FLAT~WORK - Zak's Pick, 2005, during which I have invested a great deal of time and resources into my studio.

Drawing has definitely allowed me to stay in the game of making art, even while doing a job.  It gives me the opportunity to explore an upcoming work for days or weeks while shuffling time to get into the studio.

(click on the numbers below to view the publication)

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  HOME

INTRODUCTION REFLECTIONS