We were lucky to catch up with Zach Zecha recently and have shared our conversation below.

Zach, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I think about this question a lot. Did I start my “art career” to late? (I prefer the term practice as career has these strange monitary/capitalistic notions with it)
I always had an affinity for art and the creative process. When I was in Junior high one of the many dreams in my small head was to be a visual artist, more specifically a painter. Which I pursued with a passion in high school but I got caught up in hard drugs and heavy alcohol use around the age of 15/16. The need to escape reality through chemical means became more important than anything both mentally and physically. Which pretty much took my dreams away. While remaining ambitious to make money to fuel my addiction stayed the desire to do anything meaningful slipped away. At 22 years old my drug use/life came to a precipice and fortunately rather then dying or continuing to suffer in addiction I had the opportunity to become sober. Which gave me further the opportunity to chase dreams again. After some years if healing I put myself in a community college art program, then on to eran a BFA in painting, from the University of Colorado denver, then a MFA in studio art from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts by the time I was 35.

So was I late to the game, maybe. If we consider art solely a carrer like any other with clearly defined hierarchal levels of achievement. However, as an art practice is not so.
I currently don’t sell much work, nor do I have gallery representation, nor am I known very much at all outside of Philadelphia (or even inside for that matter) where I have spent majority of my art life. But I have the freedom to express myself through creative means, making paintings, sculpture, and other art objects that give my life joy and meaning. As well having shown my art nationally in art spaces from coast to coast, holding a terminal degree in fine art and at a few different points teaching others the joys of creativity.
Now in my mid 40’s that seems like a pretty cool achievement for a man whom could easily have O.D. ed or been shot or died in some other manner in my past life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a commercial/house painter by trade.
I have been in a finishing trade since before and after my art rebirth. Architecture has always been a keen interest of mine. I like the way structures are put together, the shapes in space that the make the raw labor, and materials that go into making a building whether a house or a office building.
In grad school after viewing the Rauchengburg retrospective and the Isa Genzken retrospective at the MOMA in NYC. I started making assemblage. Once out of grad school in the need for abundant free or cheap materials I started using the refuse form job sites. Since then my work has been evolving. It’s like I want to be able to take these materials that I use everyday, that surround us, and make those materials in to something that makes a little ping go off in the back of my head and hopefully some one else as well.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Many artists will probably share the same thing but for me the most rewarding aspect of making art is once its on display watching a person spend time with the object I produced. In our visually quick world of glowing screens and choice of entertainment distractions through digital means. It is extremely fulfilling to see a person look at a work, then step closer to look at the details of the work then smile or smirk at the playfulness that they just experienced. One goal that I strive for is getting a person to engage with the visual art i make for longer then ten seconds to me that is an achievement.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

When I talk to many non-creative people, the first thing people ask is” do you sell a lot?” We as a society are so focused on money that we forget that there are other things then just making money. Now I am not wealthy I work 40 hrs a week with a union painting company which supports all my creative endeavors and feel extremely grateful for what I have. Maybe that doesn’t leave me as much time as I would like to make art but its enough, for me to feel like art is important.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.zach-zecha.com
• Instagram: @zachzecha
• Facebook: N/a
• Linkedin: N/a
• Twitter: N/a
• Youtube: N/a
• Yelp: N/a
• Soundcloud: N/a

Image Credits

All images where taken by myself zach zecha