Meet Zachary Keeting

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

Zachary, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I find a lot of these questions intriguing
– where does your generosity come from?
– where does your work ethic come from?

Can I take a swing at a couple of them? They’re all related.

I do try and act with generosity in the studio, filling the paintings, and the music, with a lot of information (this information can be heart, it can be unorthodox decisions, it can be the trace of a sincere struggle). I’m clearly partial to art that isn’t meager. I’ll always vote abundance.

I’ve made hundreds of documentary films for other people – for free – because it’s a great way to live (Gorky’s Granddaughter: my ongoing collaboration with Christopher Joy could be seen as a radical experiment in generosity). Gifting feels more meaningful than selling, doesn’t it?

What is the source of this abundance? Perhaps my productivity is a kind of desperation: of not wanting to waste these precious, fleeting days on Earth. It’s over in the blink of an eye, isn’t it?

That toggles directly into work ethic: I must make something beautiful today. And tomorrow, what I’ve made today will no longer seem sufficient, or even relevant. This sounds grim, I know, but it isn’t stifling: it’s an ever-present fire under my ass. And making art has got to be one of the best ways to spend the day, don’t you think?

The question of finding purpose, I can answer concretely. In 1989, I was a junior in high school. I didn’t have many friends, and I felt lost, all out-of-sorts. I’m sure many of my classmates were lovely people … I was just a mess. Anyway, I would often hang out – alone – at the public library and read music magazines. One day, I found myself in the art section.

I enjoyed art class, but I’d never seen 20th Century painting. From the shelves, I pulled one book after another: Braque, Bonnard, Klee, Mondrian, Der Blaue Reiter, Die Brücke. Modernism looked raw, and urgent … and brave.

I wanted desperately to be brave, I wanted urgency. Perhaps if I found a way into this slipstream I too could harness momentum. I could escape.

So I checked out books and brought them back to my room. I listened to music and looked at the pictures, I daydreamed. And then one day, I decided to try and emulate what I was seeing in those little reproductions: not copy, dance along.

Of course my earliest paintings were weird. They had no scale, the surfaces were dead, they were far too tight … but the verb of painting felt right! What a great way to spend time, I could be alone and fully active.

My high school art teacher was pretty damn excited when I brought in a few of the things I’d made. I’m not sure what my classmates thought of it all.

My life, the life I live now, really got going the day I started art school. But the genesis was that lonely afternoon at The Bedford Public Library when I found Modern Art. I’ll forever remember the rush.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I’m an abstract painter. I’ve shown around, and been on a bunch of residencies. I teach painting at a public arts high school, the kids are great.

You can see my stuff here:
http://zacharykeeting.com

I also write and record music. I’ve been in a number of bands, and fortunate to record with wildly talented people. I guess you could describe what I do as experimental … or maybe art punk? Some of it is kinda noisy, but I try and make the songs beautiful, unorthodox, and surprising. I layer it up, just like in the paintings. Here are a few recent project:
https://zacharykeeting.bandcamp.com/album/soft-pale-moth
https://visionship.bandcamp.com/album/no-sleep-in-either-eye
https://bryonfinnzacharykeeting.bandcamp.com/album/mussels-in-lamplight
https://christophermirzacharykeeting.bandcamp.com/album/the-waltz-plays-on-cassette-recordings-2001-2002

The interview project I mentioned earlier, which started in 2010, is here:
http://www.gorkysgranddaughter.com

If you’re curious to know what artists are thinking about in their studios, there’s no better source.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Is hunger a quality? I just really needed it. And I still need it. I’m voracious.

Virtuosity isn’t really all that important. Do young people today realize this? Some do, I guess. I was obsessed with odd notions of correctness when I was young. Accuracy got me off. Oh well, it was a stage of development.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that community (and thinking about other people in general) is the way to go. Get out of your own head from time-to-time: think about something other than your own art, think about someone other than yourself.

That’s really what keeps Gorky’s Granddaughter alive: curiosity.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

Last October my step dad died (my mom passed away in 2016, my dad died in 1975).

I made two big paintings in honor of my step dad in October and November and then switched to paper. Perhaps I needed to do something more overtly fragile. It definitely felt like a chapter had come to a close.

Since then, painting has felt very fluid. I’m a gestural artist, so movement is always an element. But the paintings from this past year has been different (more translucence, more ghostliness) in ways I’m curious to explore.

Also, I inherited a box of cassettes my mom recorded in the 70s and 80s (from the back of my step dad’s closet). These are recordings of us hanging out, cooking, taking baths, being silly. And when my sisters were born, us all being rambunctious. I had no idea these tapes existed. I’ve been slowly digitizing them, selecting passages, and building up surrounding soundscapes to embrace these forgotten moments.

Cuteness has never really been a variable in my art, but there’s a lot of cuteness on these tapes: it’s fascinating counterpoint to the more angular, expressionistic elements. And it’s a trip hearing 3 year old me alongside my 51 year old instrumentation. But most of all, I love spending time with my mom.

My hope is to release the first of these recordings (an LP called IP88 and an EP called Secondary Light) later this fall.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://zacharykeeting.com
• Other: I provided links to music – and the documentary film project – earlier. Please add as many as you’d like to the article.

Image Credits

All the painting photographs are my own. The portrait of me is a selfie.

Carlton Soohoo photographed the Bedford Public Library.