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 Jeff Zenick

Jeff Zenick was born March 13th, 1956 in Paris, France to American parents. He has drawn and painted since he was young. He is a self taught artist without formal training. As a youth, he hitch-hiked around the United States, working as an agricultural laborer, picking oranges, cherries, strawberries. As an adult, he has worked an endless series of jobs out of labor pools, restaurants, construction labor, working as a common laborer. Currently he does his artwork full time, having quit his last dishwashing job at the age of 50, selling his art locally and in galleries across the USA.

 

“I live in Florida with my wife Paula. We manage to scrape by, She gets to knit much of the time and I spend as much as my days drawing and painting as I can. She has 2 grown sons. I don't have any kids.

 

I am 59 years old and a self taught artist. I've done a lot of drawings over the decades, sitting outside, of old buildings, ruins, of creeks, old houses, etc. People have often said to me that I should draw landmark buildings, famous places in town, But I have very little interest in that.

 

The last several years, I've been mostly drawing portraits of people from old yearbooks. Just regular people like you or me. I'll also draw groups of people. I get a sense of personality from many of the people I draw. Some of them I think about them and wonder about quite a bit.

 

For decades, I worked some of the crappiest jobs, out of labor pools, dishwashing, house painting, bread baking, etc., while doing my art. So many times I've gotten a little saved up, quit my job, done my art full time till I was broke, than had to go out and find work again.”