About Me…
Zach Woolsey, originally from Utah now makes his home in the Nampa/Treasure Valley area. As an artist he enjoys that passion and rush that art provides while working on portraits, comics, merchandise design, or any number of related projects. As a graduate from Boise State University with degrees in Visual Art and Illustration as well as education from College of Western Idaho, Art Instruction International (Minnesota), and Francisco Marroquian University (Guatemala) it was at here he was able to refine and rediscover his talent for art into a professional artist. Using mixed media of inks, paint, watercolor, and pencils are how many of his works are conceived. With influences from life experience, family, friends, music, comics, vintage illustrations, and art history all come together to create much of the work you see today.
“I want to thank all of you who believed in me and my potential in art when I did not. I am constantly reminded of how lucky and blessed I am to be able to create the art that I do. It is my friends and family that motivate me. My favorite pieces of art are those that have been commissioned by you all. It is in these works I find the challenge and the opportunity to push myself as an artist and where all my interests and passion come together as one.”
-Zach Woolsey
Artist Statement
My work tends to focus on people and popular cultures of music and comics. Some reviews have labeled my work as “darker” but I always try to depict the depth and beauty that the darkness can bring. The essence of my work is capturing what makes each person or subject unique and in ways are what motivates me and to bring out that person that may have not been done or seen before. At school, the only class I really paid any attention in was art. I simply wasn’t interested in anything else and I think my obsession with depicting people came at an early age from influences from my childhood music and comics.
None of it was intentional I just wanted to make the most of everything I tried and learned- it all developed and evolved over time. People always ask for my artist statement so I needed to do one (a really good one) but I’ve never liked to explain a certain piece of work – if you’ve made a picture and that’s how you wanted it to be – hopefully it can speak for itself and whatever it says to the viewer – it’s always the right message because there isn’t a wrong and a right message. Each person takes something a little different from the same picture and I’m happy with that.
I started out as a very “tight” artist I would work with the idea in mind of achieving exactness, but as I began experimenting with using my same techniques in drawing and painting but using different materials I found a part of the art that was fascinating and new. MY art began to have more life and freedom. I found that in the use of inks, watercolors, colored pencils, etc, and using mixed media that it allowed a more “loose” feel and in that I find a new beauty and freedom. I have evolved and I have been able to develop different styles but its in combining those styles is where I find the art that defines who I am as an artist.
I didn’t set out to produce art about one subject or another and I’m not really into the idea and concepts of post-modernism. I’m never without a sketchbook in hand so I am constantly drawing and sometimes the drawings are left in the sketchbook and other times they develop into more in-depth ideas and detailed images. I work at drawing daily sketches, weekly more advanced art, and with those they become more of the final finished projects or commissions.
In the last few years as my portfolio developed and people started to review my work, my own style and favorite subjects started to emerge and I began to notice a pattern I hadn’t intended but am now please with. I didn’t set out to be a portrait artist, comic artist, or to create artwork relating to the human figure. I still don’t see myself as that or just one thing I do in art. I’ve always been the type of artist that enjoys the thrill of the creation and the passion of art and in that is where I see myself as the professional artist.
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