We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Zeke Zewick. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Zeke below.

Alright, Zeke thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

When I embarked on this creative journey, I was a young person just wanting to earn a living doing something that I enjoyed. I really had no clue where I was headed or what would transpire. As my journey unfolded over the years, I realized that following your heart was not the only answer. Faith in the universe may help, but you have to put effort, hard work, long hours into the path you start on. And then its important to not stand in your own way. If an opportunity for a creative endeavor that you know you are not completely qualified for but you think you con preform the task and learn something in the process, jump out there and go for it! Your client will appreciate your effort and probably commission you again for another project It’s important to not sell yourself short and undercharge for your work. Folks ask “how do you keep getting ideas?” I just tell them that I go to my studio everyday and make something. It may be a piece of jewelry, a shelf for a tool or even lunch. But one movement towards a project opens your mind to another idea for something else. Then you have the freedom to work towards that piece and get it ready for market.
Now that you are creating some pieces, you have to find a way to trade that work for some means of keeping yourself at a standard of living you can accept. You can do art shows, local markets, social media markets, living room exhibitions with friends or any of many opportunities to get your creations in front of as many folks as possible. You must keep on keeping on as the old adage says. Along the way, your clients will become friends and vice versa. We all help support each other. It important to not give up and keep on creating and putting your work out there for folks to see it. Don’t take it personal if someone doesn’t like it or likes it and doesn’t buy it. It’s just as important to feed your creative soul as it is to feed you body.

Zeke, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In the 60’s, I had my own leather shop in Texas. As a young hippie, the world was wide open as long as you stayed under the radar. I had an opportunity to apply for a job as a designer for a national belt company and it worked out that I landed the job. Well a couple of years in corporate environment showed me that this was not my place. So I used my GI Bill and went back to college and graduated with an art Degree. There was a sign on the wall in the bac of the studios that said “If you have a choice of being an Artist or something else, Be something else”. Well there was no choice. My life partner, my wife and my best friend, Marty Flanagan, and I moved to East Texas to a small Art Community, Edom, Texas and began our journey as full time artists. of course, it was feast or famine alot of time, but we were pursuing our chosen life path. Eventually our leather works gave way to metals and we became full time silversmiths.
The customers we collected along the way through juried Art Shows and personal commissions followed us into new creative ways and continued to buy our pieces whenever we made some new creations. We were doing about 20 shows a year all across the south and up into the Midwest.
Also along with our travels we were helping organize and produce some art shows. The most important show is here in our small town of Edom, Texas. This year, 2024 will be our 52nd Art Festival.
I am proud to say that we made a living with our art works for all these years, Now that Marty has left this earth, I am making work in the studio by myself and not traveling the country doing shows. After 50 years of being on the road, the gypsy comes calling at times, but I can go on my journey, not traveling to an art show to sell my wares, and enjoy the leisure of the trip.
My creations continue to evolve as I explore combinations of everyday materials with precious gems and metals. I love using oxidized steel with sterling silver. The process of coloring bone with alcohol inks and inlaying sparkling gemstones is exciting. I am known for the juxtaposition of unusual objects becoming sculptural body adornments.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I think that our goal as artists today is to be the shapers of myths for tomorrow. Our works explore the influence of society on itself “Ancient Futurism” is my concept of this societal experience. The freedom to explore and to be influenced by the combination of everyday materials with precious metals and gems lets my work become the materialization of my imagination.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I am awed by the fact that my work has been and continues to be appreciated by so many of my clients. The gratefulness I feel when someone is willing to purchase and live with a piece of my creation is sometimes mind boggling. I have been able to sustain my life with my hands transferring my thoughts into material objects and then trading these pieces for a monetary means to live on. Granted there are times of feast and times of famine, but I can’t think of a better way to have spent my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: [email protected]
• Facebook: [email protected]
• Linkedin: [email protected]
• Twitter: [email protected]
• Yelp: [email protected]

Image Credits
All images taken by Zeke Zewick.