Introduction
Zachary Brown
Since childhood art has been a part of my life. Artistic tendency runs strong through my father's bloodline, and it seems a piece of it trickled down to me.
Though I attended an arts school up to the eighth grade, and took college courses right out of high school—and despite knowing the abilities of my forebears—my artistic potential was never really tested until late 2011. At that time my grandmother was largely confined to a bed in her living room, in the final stages of hospice. Having been recently thinking of making my first-ever "grown-up" attempt at a drawing, I figured I'd do something for her. I gathered what remained of an old set of pencils, got to work on a piece of printer paper, and produced a colorful, slightly surreal image for her to rest her eyes on. The satisfaction it brought her, the finished piece resting humbly on a tack board next to her favorite rocking chair, marked a permanent change somewhere within me.
While in skill and technique it cannot compare to the drawings of today, its outcome surprised and impressed me. I thought, "Maybe art really is in my blood!"
(The drawing that started it all!)
Here's a little about the "me" of today.
In 2018 I moved to Atlanta from my birthplace among the mountains of northern California. I am an observer; a lover of ideas, perceptions, personalities, and the artistry that exists within each of life's moments. I marvel at the natural world. Despite taking life seriously, I love to laugh. I'm a people-person who likes his solitude. Beyond visual art, I'm pursuing achievements in the realms of photography and creative writing.
My objective as an artist?
First, to encounter new personalities and breathe life into their likeness, in a way that only my eyes will—establishing new relationships and broadening my own experience along the way.
Second—on a more personal level—to harness the tools and ability at my disposal for the purpose of conveying dreams, feelings, and truths in a way that language cannot.
Beneath each personality is a vast string of impressions, as unique from one person to the next as drops of rain, or crystals of ice. I've found that a strong portrait, in nearly any style, tends to capture this—to carry with it an ageless grain of its subject's own energy. This is perhaps my greatest fascination with the artistic process.
With my work I wish to move you— to bring warmth, or stir memory, or merely focus life into an impression of someone or something you love; to move you as I, too, have been moved by the works of others.