Bringing Scrap Metal to Life Through Art and Innovation

Metal sculpture, stop-motion animation, and creative ingenuity take center stage in this episode of Full STEAM Ahead. Gary and Judy Siegel talk with 

Zac Shavrick—aka Zacmax—a New York-based artist who transforms scrap steel into animated sculptures full of personality.

Based in New York’s Sullivan Catskills, Zac has been welding since age five, blending traditional metalwork with stop-motion techniques. He shares the story behind “Billy the Grim Reaper,” from raw scrap to its final polyurethane-coated form, highlighting the craftsmanship and creativity behind his work.

Zac’s art has been featured in galleries nationwide. He’s also the founder of the Flashburn Metal Art and Music Festival and is launching Zacmax Studios, offering welding and blacksmithing workshops to grow the creative community.


Tune in to explore the fusion of art, engineering, and imagination—and how scrap metal becomes storytelling.



 Learn More & Get Involved:
https://www.zacmax.com
https://www.flashburnfestival.com
https://steamfund.org
https://steamfund.org/#education
https://steamfund.org/#mogaat
https://steamfund.org/#new


#artseducation  #fullsteamahead  #metalart   #Sculpture #StopMotion #CreativeCommunity #STEAMEducation #PodcastEpisode

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Full Steam Ahead. I'm your co-host Gary Siegel, and together with my wife Judy Siegel, we represent the S in Steam Fund, the Siegel Trust enriching arts and music. Our mission is to support musicians, artists in the venues where they share their gifts. The Hudson Valley has long been a magnet for incredible musicians, artists, and makers, and through Full Steam Ahead, we get to share the stories behind those who inspire us. Today, we are so excited to welcome Zach Shavrick, also known as Zach Max, a New York-based metal sculptor who transforms scrap steel into intricate animated features full of personality and imagination. Based in Youngsville, New York, Zach has been welding since the age of five, developing a style that blends traditional metalwork with stop-motion animation, bringing his sculptures to life in a way that is both technical and truly magical. His work has been featured in galleries across the country, and he's also the creator of the Flashburn Metal Art and Music Festival, a one-of-a-kind event that brings together artists, makers, and performers in an immersive creative environment. And with Zach Max Studios on the horizon offering welding and blacksmithing workshops, Zach continues to expand not just his art, but the community around it. Before we dive in, we'd love for you to join our community to learn more about the Steam Fund. Please visit Steamfund.org, like our social media pages, follow us on Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and share these episodes with your friends. It's the best way to keep the arts and the conversations moving full steam ahead. So without further ado, welcome Max. Thank you again.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

So nice to have you here.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

Pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

So, starting at the very beginning, we like to start there. Start Young, tell us what your first memories are of creating metal and working with metal, and how'd this all get started? How did he get started?

SPEAKER_04 2:12

Well, um, I guess as early as I can remember, I was already in the metal shop. Even like little childhood pictures of me as a two-year-old with a welding shield on. And by like three, four years old, I was putting scrap on the table and my dad would weld it together. Instead of doodling, I would just doodle in in metal, in little dots and and stuff on the table. And then by the time I was five, I was just like, I'm doing all the welding, Dad. Like, don't even help me anymore. I got this.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

So why was there all this metal? Your dad was a welder, your dad was a sculptor. What's what's your history there?

SPEAKER_04 2:46

My dad started as a metal fabricator before I was born, and then when I was right around the time when I was one one years old, he transitioned to being fully supporting himself on sculpture.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Wow. So you grew up and he was sculpting was he sculpting these really amazing, cool, funky products like this, or was he?

SPEAKER_04 3:05

He had his own style, did a lot of abstract and Judaica sculptures, as well as like creative gates and railings and you know, just any kind of work that was offered to him and really some amazing stuff that he's been doing, still does, and still does.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Aaron Ross Powell And did he guide you as a two-year-old, as a five-year-old, as a ten-year-old, or did you just like innately you just I think I just followed him into the shop constantly.

SPEAKER_04 3:30

You know, he was going in there and I was like a little kid on my own. He was a single father, and so I would just follow him in there and just he needed like to give me something to do or something, you know?

SPEAKER_01 3:39

So like was there a torch or something?

SPEAKER_04 3:42

Like it was this like I mean the stuff was all around and I would be in like little kid safety gear and still putting stuff on the table.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

So did you feel like it was play or purpose?

SPEAKER_04 3:50

Yeah, yeah, it was absolutely play at that age. You know, you don't know what like the idea of being an artist is or anything. It's just like I want to I want to do that. I want to do that thing. And then I really like doing that thing. So I kept every day, you know, I would bug my dad like, hey, I want to make something too, you know. He's got a job to do. I gotta I'm like, I want to have fun in the shop and make like a little sculpture, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

So at what point, you know, you you've you you were just learning from your dad, but at what point did you feel like you were uh developing your own artistic identity?

SPEAKER_04 4:21

I mean, I think uh my dad was a very good coach, you know, where he liked to nurture people's talents. That was always something that was like one of his specialties. So as soon as he saw that I had the propensity for the metal work, he was just like really, really fostering it. And I also really got excited by art. So like as a little kid, I would see uh pop artists and like lowbrow art and all these different like and comic books and all these like things, and I would be like, I want to make that, you know. And so So you did. So I'd go make like a version of it and constantly be doing that. And so I think it didn't take long before I felt like, okay, I'm I'm uh my own artist and I'm like I have my own style. And I remember I once tried to make work like my dad's, and I was like, this is not for me. I can't do this. I can't do this. I gotta keep making the faces and the figures, you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Was it always this? Like a big thing. It pretty much was, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

This is like a introduce uh our friend here.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

This is Billy. Billy Billy. Billy, the little death uh kind of grim reaper character that I was working on and uh inspired by a book I read.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

I need to call my dentist, I think.

SPEAKER_04 5:30

Yeah. He's got some teeth issues. Oh, they always have teeth issues most officially.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

And that's sort of your genre, right? Like this is this is typical for the work that that somebody would see.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

Something macabre, freaky, grotesque, is what I what I veer towards. But I can all I can do all the styles and you know, why monsters.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

It's what I love.

SPEAKER_04 5:51

I don't know. It's like if if you have the choice of making your own art, you know, you you kind of gravitate towards something. And for me, that's like like growing up with spawn comic books and and cartoons on TV and video games with monsters in it. That was like the stuff I really, really loved. And you know, they're like they're like the protector demons. They're not like your enemy, like things that I'm afraid of that I'm making to like get my fears out. They're more like they're more like my buddies, you know. They're evil and grotesque, but like in a fun way. Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

And you take like metal, like like what what did this start out as?

SPEAKER_04 6:26

So this is yeah, lots and lots of little pieces welded together, and then you know, I kind of make it seem like it's cast or molded, but it's actually welded and then cut away, and then welded and then cut away.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Aaron Powell So let's talk about that. Where where do you get your scrap metal? I mean, is it just uh you know where where do you get it?

SPEAKER_04 6:46

I mean scrap metal is everywhere. It's kind of one of those things that's hard to get rid of if you have too much on your property, you know. So like a lot of times people will just be like, hey, take it. I got a bucket full of horseshoes, or I got like all these old rusty nails.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Like I like them? We have them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:03

I'll take I'll take those things. And on top of that, my main suppliers, like when I was growing up, we used to have this place called Breakwell Steel, where the owners kind of like that we would come in and take their scrap and use it for sculptures. And uh, like my dad loved to famously say, we would go there with our truck, and the owner would be like, get a bigger truck, you know? Because they didn't care how much of their scrap we took, it was so worthless to them, and we could only like make a tiny little dent in it.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Right.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

And there's like kind of a funny story, is that my dad used to, when I was so little, he would pick me up and put me in the dumpster, and I would go to the bottom where all the little small pieces were collect. And I would I would fill the little buckets that we had, and he would get like the heavy I beams out of the thing. Wow. And then somebody would run out and be like, hey, don't put your kid in the dumpster for days. And then eventually, you know, 13, 14 years old, I'm climbing in there and waving to the guys, and we're bringing them like uh, you know, some some snacks to thank them or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

So so I watched some of the animations, and at the beginning, the the animations it starts with just scrap metal on you that you put on the table. And and these animations are just amazing to watch. And and uh you may want to mention where where you can s find those animations. Um so that the viewers and the listeners can can go go to the website. Is it Zachmax.com.

SPEAKER_04 8:23

Yeah, Zachmax.com has all that, and youtube.com slash Zach Max. Those are the three Z-A-C. Z-A-C-M-A-X, exactly. Yeah, so so you start with you start with the scrap metal on the table and then Yeah, I like to give a little origin story to the sculptures, you know, because I'm making it on the spot, so I kind of need all that stuff there. So I kinda start with like a little fun animation with the scrap or maybe a cleaning sequence, because the table's always a mess, so if I just keep taking things away, you kind of get a little a little stop motion action going on.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

And this isn't animation like Bugs Bunny, this is animation like just speeding things up and movement movement of of what you have to do to be able to create. There's a lot of fire.

SPEAKER_04 9:06

A lot of fire involved, and a lot of heat. And it's a it's a very um rigorous and difficult process, and I only get to do it when I have like a perfect window of time where I'm not super busy with something else, and I can like dedicate shop space to it, and like but I've got more potential for really building a space for it now.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

So do you uh create a drawing of what you want to do first or or does it just evolve only when I'm being commissioned.

SPEAKER_04 9:38

If I'm being commissioned and people need drawings in order to like help them through the process, then I'm happy to come up with drawings for them. And that can sometimes take me almost as long as the sculpting process. If I want to get it like if they really need like a super detailed drawing and they want to just write and they want options to choose from, that can take me a while. And then the sculpting process for me is generally very like organic, you know, like I'll have like a big pile of scrap and if I don't if I don't have like a plan, like a commission or whatever, I'll kind of start formulating an idea, sometimes even into the sculpt. So I'll uh just let the pieces kind of weld themselves together, formulate like an oddball shape, start cutting into the shape, and be like, oh, maybe that's my head, or maybe that's a torso. And like I want it to be d a little bit um abnormal, you know? I'm kind of embracing all those kind of things.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Maybe that's what we should name them. Abby normal. Abby normal. That's the next one.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

So like, and then do you like take heat to make these like um folds in a piece of metal? Is that what happens then?

SPEAKER_04 10:47

So this is like what I use is small thin lines of metal. Sometimes I'll take welding rods and I'll break the slag off of them and use just the wire inside so it's like thick wire and I'll build up and I'll use the weld to build up, and then I'll cut if I don't like it, I'll cut it out with a torch and just kind of keep doing that over and this is the basis of it is usually like um two by two inch square pieces of metal that I'll cut on a shear to make like a whole bucket full of little squares. And then I'll use that, uh those squares to make my shapes or triangles or whatever shape I have.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

What's the biggest one you've ever done?

SPEAKER_04 11:25

Uh I think the one I did that was at um Sam's towing in Liberty, New York for uh a year or so. That one came out to be, I think, 15 feet. Is it still there? No, he moved to Florida. Uh he took it with him? He took it with him, yeah. Wow, so now it's in Florida. Yeah, he's in Florida. You travel. Yeah, and then the one I I built another one in Chester, New York for Breakwell Steel, where I used to dive in their dumpsters, and the name of the sculpture is the dumpster divers, based pretty much on that whole existence. And it's got a um, I think it's like a 13-foot dumpster that the fabrication company actually built for me to spec.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 12:03

And then it's got 13 sculptures coming out of it, each with something connected to the metalworking industry.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Aaron Powell, so in terms of your welding, uh is is this just something that you innately learned when uh from the time you were five years old? Or or did you take a courses in? I mean, people people become welders and they're and there's you know, there's uh trade schools, study programs that that they become welders. How how did how did you evolve with that?

SPEAKER_04 12:28

Aaron Powell Yeah, I mean, it wasn't long into welding that my dad would actually farm out some of his welding work to me and be like, you know, I gotta weld up this railing and you know, you're you're here.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

So you have to get to work with a dad diploma. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

I did go to I did go to college for art and I took welding classes, but they kind of tested me on how well I could weld, and pretty much were like, okay, so you can be like a shop assistant instead of like starting off in the basic classes. So I ended up kind of helping out around the metal shop at school, which was you didn't learn from them.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

You you learned some from them, but you didn't get your base education.

SPEAKER_04 13:08

Well, welding has like there's three main types of welding. There's more than three. There's there's the three most common, which is MIG, TIG, and stick. And stick welding is what I grew up with. It's a bit more basic, and I did that most of my early life. And then when I got to college, they said, okay, well, can you MIG weld? And I knew how to MIG weld, but it wasn't something that we had at home. So they tested me on it, and I didn't turn the gas on, and I didn't turn like the right settings on. They're like uh excuse you. What is MIG w is So MIG welding is what all I do now. It's it's where you you press a trigger and a spool of wire is just ran through this through a conduit to the end, and that completes your circuit. So you have like a ground clamp and your welding end, and when you they meet and you're active, it forms liquid metal.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 13:58

And it's just a spool of wire coming out. So MiG welding is almost like hot gluing. You know, you have the hot glue that just feeds in, but imagine that was like connected to an infinite roll of wire. And smaller. Very technical. Yeah. I'm trying to give you the non-technical explain. The equipment in front of you, it all makes a little bit more sense, but trying to be But uh stick welding is the classic, like the electrodes. You know, you got like um they say it like burns down like a cigarette. You get like a bar of And then it just gets switched. Yeah, it gets smaller and smaller, and then when it's too small, you throw away the end and you take another one. And that's that's like the classic stick welding that all the you know the bridges and that's not done necessarily for art as much as for It was, and it is still, absolutely. It's whatever people can do whatever they want with any of the methods. I like MiG because it builds up very quickly. You know, you can lay a lot of stuff down fast and it doesn't have what's called slag. So the stick welding leaves a residue on top of it that you actually chip off, and that that's your protective layer. Whereas with MiG welding, it's actually a a comb of gas that is flowing through your your welding gun that blocks oxygen from interacting with the liquid metal. Because liquid metal and oxygen don't go well.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

And what makes it so shiny? Does it have a coating on it?

SPEAKER_04 15:18

It's got a polyurethane coating on it, yeah. And I wire brush it to clean it and grind it and to a sculptor like Billy here.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Um uh how how long did it take you to make Billy?

SPEAKER_04 15:31

Um it was a a pretty a pretty busy two weeks. So, you know, doing other stuff but still focusing here and there on him for good periods of time and you know, with other stuff on the table.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

And can you take us through the process of of of even just specifically Billy?

SPEAKER_04 15:48

Like did was were there times where you went back and changed things or or or was it just from toe to head or I mean I think I think early on I made the skull face and I was like, okay, I I haven't ever done like a Grim Reaper, which in in this size and scale, so I was like, I want to make a really like flowing robe, you know, I want to practice my like my cloth a little bit. And I had just read a really interesting book at the time, which had this character, Billy, in it, who was like the kind of he was the Grim Reaper also, and he was it was a very interesting character. Uh it was called the Einstein intersection, if anyone's wondering. Um so I read that book and I was like, wow, this is like a cool character, and I kind of wanted to make my envision creation of it.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

E equals M C squared, isn't it? Yeah, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

And so I I just because I know that we'll move on and I just want to kind of ask you this. So you grew up in rural New York, Sullivan County, New York mostly. Do you feel like that had any influence one way or the other, being near New York City, being in the country, other than than your father's piece to that, which could have happened in Iowa or anywhere? Like what what role did being in rural New York play, if any, in in sort of where you how you got to where you are?

SPEAKER_04 17:15

Well, I would say there's that aspect of being kinda isolated with an art shop right next to you that put me in like this constant production mode, which uh is definitely something that I equate to being up here. And then I'm always inspired by like nature and the animals and the creatures around me, so I love that. And I I was I was also growing up two hours from the city, like you said, and I had a very strong connection to the city where it wasn't just like I was always up here. We would go to see gallery shows in the city, and my parents were split. So my mom lived in Queens or Manhattan most of my upbringing, so I would spend weekends in the city and then you know, try and have that as like something that made a very significant impression on me.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

So you got the exposure of of the art in Manhattan and you got the the rural country vibe too. And and did that was all of that do you feel like any of that played an influence or all of that played an influence? Or really it's just your dad's stuff? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

SPEAKER_04 18:15

No, for sure. It was it was a a mixture of everything. I even ended up getting a mentor when I was about twelve years old. There was a sculptor in the city whose uh work I loved. I was obsessed with his sculpture. And that was another thing I would become obsessed with with artists like Kenny Sharf and this guy, J.J. Veronis, and uh just different artists throughout history that I really like, most of them living. And then when they would have a show, I would be like, We gotta go, we gotta go see this show. And so I would when I was seven years old, I went to a Kenny Sharf exhibit and I met Kenny Sharp and I got him to like sign my little drawing book, and like that was like a celebrity to me. Kind of amazing.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Like most kids are playing tag, right? And you're out there like in the dark.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

It was nice because my dad didn't really care if I missed school, so it'd be like, okay, there's a gallery show on a Wednesday in Soho. I guess you're not gonna be in school tomorrow, whatever. It doesn't matter to me.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

It's just really funny because right before we started, we talked about the fact that we had spoken with an old principal of yours, and he said you were one of his favorites. So isn't that funny?

SPEAKER_04 19:14

I think by by high school I was like, I can't really afford to make that move as much anymore. In elementary school, you could get away with missing like 30 days in a year and still like you know, I'm getting a lot of life experience out of it, so you're learning other stuff, and maybe my math was never top tier.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

I I don't know if you know, but Judy's grandfather actually was a sculptor. He did bronze moldings. He did bronze moldings and has them, I think, in in the New York uh city library. Yeah. In the entrance, there are a number of his And our house. Oh, very nice. More importantly, and our house, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

So back in the day they used like dust and things like that for for the bronze moldings that they did. It was a whole it was a different art.

SPEAKER_04 19:54

I did I did bronze casting. I love it. It's it's something I was passionate about as well, but the setup is very um it requires a lot.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

And it's not good for you. He moved up that was in Jersey City, he moved up to the Catskills because uh the air here is better than that.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Aaron Powell So we've talked a little bit about the animation and uh when did you realize your sculptures uh needed to have animation and not just be still?

SPEAKER_04 20:21

Um It was quite a while ago now, I guess almost 20 years ago, where I was making stop-motion videos with a Nikon CoolPix.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

I was I was 18 at the time, and I was building that dumpster diver sculpture. I think I was 19, and um I was putting together all the pieces and I was like, I might as well film this. And as I was filming it, sometimes I would like move an arm or something and be like, oh, it like kind of does that. And then one day, a little bit later, after doing these first, like they're not really stop motion animations as much as they are like process videos of me building the first couple sculptures, and then I started to like kind of make them move a little bit, and then I'm okay, if I can make them move a little bit, I wonder if I could do like the classic walking sequence. So I did, I sat there and actually I'm in the video the whole time doing the animation. So you have like this little metal sculpture sculpture happening, and I'm like working on it, and he's really walking, and I'm like, oh my goodness. That's cool, right? Like a puppet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

But still, metal puppet.

SPEAKER_04 21:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Other than going on your website and seeing those very, very cool little metal guys doing their animated thing, where do those animations go? What what's what's what's your vision for that?

SPEAKER_04 21:39

Well, there's the Too Short to Suck Film Festival happening uh in in a month or two, and I'm gonna create a new video for that. And last year I made one specific for it and it won an award at their festival, which was very exciting to me. And then I extended it and s and submitted it to the Hudson Valley Film Festival, and I won an award there, which was really cool.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

That's in the huge metropolis of Parksville, New York, right? Huge metropolis. There is that, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:05

There's that. One block town. You know, supporting block is a great thing. But it's a great block in that one block town. I'm very proud of Parksville. They do really great art things and great music things. But is there do they have stories? Is that is that the vision? Like what's the thing?

SPEAKER_04 22:21

For my Yeah, I I have like I even have like a whole feature-length movie planned. Yeah, a friend of mine had like a funny little league story, and I I wanted to recreate it with slugs out of metal and call it little sluggers. And it's based on a true story, and that's something I'd like to do, but you know, you need time and a team around it to really make that happen. So uh mostly right now they're all experimental, like just have fun and put an animation out as much as I can. And sometimes I'll storyboard them a little bit. I've got quite a few out there that I've made, and some are like with plot, and some are just random, and some have like a lot of I try and get comedy in there always. I always want the stuff to be funny if possible. Yeah, a little slapstick. Some three stooges action going on. I I mean I love that. And a lot of times my my characters will get hurt or fall off something, you know. But then they'll be fine. They're made out of metal. They're okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

They're animations. Yeah. You can do anything you want.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

So so uh as you do these animations, have you finished one and said, oh, this is really something special, or or is that all is that the norm, or is it a mix.

SPEAKER_04 23:34

Sometimes I'm like, this is this one's mediocre, or um I'll work on something like a really long time and it'll be like, I think I nailed it here, and then it doesn't doesn't do as well as I think it would. And then sometimes I'll make one quickly, like I think one of my most popular ones I made in two days, and it's a 30-second one, which is pretty good for two days to get 30 seconds. That's like that's rare. But things were kind of flowing, and like I did it a little differently than usual. And this is still quite a ways back, but it it was quick and it was like concise, but it it had like a little bit of rhythm to it, and the music went right with it, and it just like it just it killed, you know, it did really well. People were like really excited about it and sharing it online, and it had like a little bit of viral potential. So that was nice.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

So what do you think is the hardest part of what you do? I don't mean physically hard, just mentally, maybe physically too. Like what what's the challenge?

SPEAKER_04 24:29

I guess as I'm getting older, my speed of like coming up with the creations and and acting them out, or not acting uh just just creating them isn't what it used to be, just because you know I'm not that young and now life kinda takes over a lot. So it's it's it used to be where I'd just be in the shop for hours and hours and hours every day, and that was my only focus. And hopefully I can get back to that a little bit more. But you know, we've been in the process of building a new shop, and you know, in order to build the new shop, you gotta work extra jobs to make that work, and so it's been like a little bit of a juggle, and I guess in the midst of juggling everything, trying to be a productive sculptor, sometimes doesn't stay as I don't know. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Sure. So so I was gonna say let's let's talk about the shop then. Oh, yeah. What what are your what are your plans? What are you what's your dream there? Um you know what's gonna happen in the shop? And uh we know it's gonna be located in Youngsville, New York, right? That's right. Another large metropolis. That is not even one of the things.

SPEAKER_04 25:38

Yes, well they do have a post office. Yeah, we got a post office, so we got a chicken spot. But um well, growing up as I was telling you about those stories, those all happened in the shop that my dad had and still has, which was like kind of a repurposed chicken barn.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

You know, very like were there chickens or it just happened to be a chicken barn?

SPEAKER_04 25:58

I'm pretty sure there used to be chickens that have been chicken. No, no, not in my day. Already they were they had cleared out by the time we got that place. But it was like maybe maybe a horse stable. I'm not sure what it was used for, but it was some sort of barn outbuilding, and it was very much falling down then and is very much falling down now, and no, you know, no concrete and no insulation, and like, you know, everything is kind of jerry-rigged together, and it's just been a dream of mine to have like a functional concrete floor, heated shop. And uh as of actually yesterday, we we got all of our power on, we got all of the lights on, and all the outlets done, and it's ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Ready to go.

SPEAKER_04 26:38

Yeah, so today today we're just kind of cleaning up.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

So, what's gonna happen in the workshop over here?

SPEAKER_04 26:43

Um well, certainly it'll be my studio for making larger and smaller scale sculptures. I'll have a metal machine section where I'll just be making animations, and then another thing that we're opening up is more classes. So I'll be teaching welding workshops and blacksmithing workshops and you know, sculpture or welding 101 or metalworking skills, you know, just just kind of get your feet wet metal stuff, and if people get really excited about it, they can come on for private lessons or they can stay and rent out a little bit of shop space. You know, there's just a lot of avenues that we're gonna be able to offer people access.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Will there be a uh shop, a shop in the shop? Will people be able to come and and either look at the animations on screen or see actual sculptures they can purchase? Is that part of the vision?

SPEAKER_04 27:34

I hadn't thought about it before, but now that you mention it. No, no, we were we were we were gonna do we're just we were we were planning on a gallery, but I didn't think about you know like having the animations playing and things like that. That's a great idea. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

So we're Zach Max Museum.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Yeah. Yeah. And I think I mean they're just so much fun to watch, even you know, the the brief time I did in my house. I think it would be fun to see a whole series of them and you know to understand what the process in the story is. Uh you could do great things with that. Uh yeah, I can't wait.

SPEAKER_04 28:04

I'm about to start, I'm about to embark on a new one, the first animation in the new shop, so I'm like really excited for that next year.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Cool. So you also do a festival? The Flash Festival. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:17

We do a yearly art and music festival.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

It's uh how did how did it get it to?

SPEAKER_04 28:23

We needed a we needed to make some money one year. It was about 17 years ago. My dad and I were like, We gotta we gotta drum up some sales.

unknown 28:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:31

We were like, well, maybe we just do our own show because we were kind of getting tired of like galleries who take like a big portion, and you don't always guarantee a sale at the gallery, and so we were like, well, we're not guaranteed a sale anyway. We might as well put it on ourselves. So we put on this kind of small party, and we invited people to come to see the work, and we had music, and it was just it was more like a small little art show. And it got it went went over well and people liked it. So we did it again, and then we got some bands this time, and and people were like, okay. And so we just kept doing it and it got bigger, and it's never been really big, so it's still kind of a small event, but it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Not quite as big as Woodstock.

SPEAKER_04 29:09

Aaron Ross Powell, Jr. Not not there, no. No, no.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

There's potential you have time.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

Yeah, it's it's like that that grassroots kind of like feel like you're at the start of something, even though it's been going on for 20 years. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

And flashburn is is a style of welding, is that it's actually the um it's the affliction.

SPEAKER_04 29:26

It's what happens if you stare at the weld. You know, it's it's it's a problem. Oh, you get you get the f you get a flash burn because the weld is so bright, it's like staring at the sun, but it's actually more concentrated.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

It's it's more trails and little black dots in your eyes.

SPEAKER_04 29:41

Well, you will get that, and that's not really a problem. Like you get that for a second and then you like kind of stutter and you're like, okay, but then you're fine. The problem is later that evening, what you've done is you've gotten yourself like a really bad sunburn on your eyelids and your eyes. And so you'll wake up at three o'clock in the morning and you won't be able to open your eyes, and you'll be like it feels like somebody threw sand in your eyes and it's salt. It's like so how do you protect yourself? Well, you wear a welding shield and you don't look at the actual arc. You never look at the arc unless you're behind the shield.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

Aaron Ross Powell Is there a long-term negative health effect from any of this? Not not obviously from flash burns if you did that all the time, but in general.

SPEAKER_04 30:18

Well, my dad has become more sensitive to the flash burn because he wasn't always as safety aware. And he would made me be very safety conscious. So I've pretty much never had more than one or two, you know, and they were minor. And he gets them very easily and quickly because he's been so exposed to it. But you know, you gotta be aware of uh respiratory issues with with fumes. You gotta be careful about, you know, obviously sparks and fire and heavy things falling on you. So there's there's the usual pratfalls of metalwork that are all tied in.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Very bad industry for me. I could never be careful enough. Something bad would happen.

SPEAKER_04 30:55

But I mean, I just spent the last couple of days doing electrical and helping my electrician finish up the shop, and I've never gotten more cuts and bruises in two days than I did just trying to like wire wire up some little outlets and stuff. Like my hands are bleeding. Terribly.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

So Zach Max has uh become much more than your name, which from what I understand is your name, Zach Max.

SPEAKER_03 31:20

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

We have a Max, so I I really love that. Um what does that mean to you? What does Zach Max represent in your mind?

SPEAKER_04 31:29

Um well, I guess like a lot of people, I'm just trying to contribute something meaningful to the world in some way, and I want to do something unique, and I've kind of been given a unique opportunity to have done this one thing very seriously in my entire life. So I think it kind of uh it behooves me to like put it out there to people, you know. Like even you know, whatever I can do to contribute something uh interesting to people's lives is worth it.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

And I have to tell you, like, I see I know that in Rock Hill, New York exit 109 off Route 17, there's this amazing 12 foot. It must be you said 15 feet is your biggest. Yeah, so he's he's close though. He's like 12 and a half, 13 feet. This very funky sculpture that I see regularly, and we do see Zach Max sculptures floating around Sullivan County. What's the farthest other than maybe Florida that you have uh landed?

SPEAKER_04 32:26

Well, I've sent sculptures so I think like thirty countries or more. I had this big uh Kickstarter program where people sent me pictures and I made the a sculpture of each picture, and then you know, they were all over the world, and I did 120 of those different sculptures based on people's pictures.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Have you made a map of where all your sculptures are? Maybe that's something you can see.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

No, I should be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

People can go on the Zach Max tour.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

My my wife and I both uh an eleven-footer in Israel. We put we have an eleven-footer in uh in the south of Israel.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Very, very close. So you're so you're around so long after there Zach Max.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

They will last beyond me, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

There will there will be remnants of you, monsters all over the gold.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

In perpetuity. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

So I'm sorry, but what would like so when you when you think about people like me or anybody like looking at these sculptures and and admiring them, what's your hope? What do you wish that they would say the wow about?

SPEAKER_04 33:28

Like, damn, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

Okay. Because it is. It they are so cool.

SPEAKER_04 33:35

I mean, I guess I want people to enjoy them, but I understand when they don't, so it doesn't actually bother me if they don't like it, because I'm just I'm just making what I think is like the coolest possible thing that I can make for my mind. And I do want to keep advancing that and improving that and making it more uh interesting to people, but if they don't like it, then that's not a problem to me. And if they really like it or they want to learn how to do it, or they wanna are inspired by it in some way that like people individually are putting this kind of art out in the world, well, what more can I ask for?

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Well, so when I see these, I say they are cool. And I think they're even more cool to me because of hearing the whole process and what goes into uh creating these amazing pieces, pieces of art, artwork, and scrap metal.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:29

Yeah, I think a lot of people kind of gloss over all the process behind it and they're like, oh, that's a cool thing. Like I I'll bet that was like real easy to do.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

And you're helping the environment too by getting all the scrap, a lot of responsibility.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Reduce, reuse, recycle, you know. You're you're part of the pr part of the solution.

SPEAKER_04 34:45

So I will take your junk.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

So five, ten years down the road, uh, where do you see Zach Max?

SPEAKER_04 34:55

Oh, um well, I've been really into um farming. Not like not like uh standard farming, but like um permaculture and like uh perennial plants like trees and and fruit shrubs and all that, and just kind of having those kind of grow up with some sculptures might be kind of cool and create like a more like an edible garden with some sculptures mixed in, and then maybe have a couple ecotourism houses popped in and people could stay and they can come and take a class, or they could teach a class, you know. Things like that at the at the shop. Because when we built the shop, we had to like excavate some land, and there was a lot of um like honeysuckle and and rose and kind of dead trees that were clogging up our backyard, and so we kind of had them rip that out and create swales, and then I just planted like pawpaws and persimmons and cherry and apple and pear and all kinds of things. Yeah. All these things will grow here. And you know, if they and you know, yeah. I'll just keep keep planting them until something works. You know, and uh I don't mind. I'll just keep, you know, trial and erroring it until we get like a nice food forest.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:08

Something make a really amazing sculpture garden back there with like some Zen walkways.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Listen, if there's any farmers out there that want uh scarecrows in their fields, you know. Commission one of your works for their uh for their field.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Giant monster scarecrow. Or a fountain.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

Let's have that.

SPEAKER_04 36:29

A bird, you know, a bird fountain. We're thinking big here, Gary.

SPEAKER_01 36:32

We need to go up So when you say five to ten years like that, that that idea of like trees and and sculptures and bushes and and all of that sounds really attractive to me. Like I can imagine people kind of just visiting and and viewing. Exactly. I I'm I actually love sculptures. I I'm not a I'm not a real um I I've never been really um able to enjoy visual art, you know, painting and things. I try to and I it hasn't ever really grabbed me, but sculptures somehow they they have a personality, you know, and and I I love to uh to just sort of wonder who that guy is, you know, in in its own right.

SPEAKER_04 37:15

So I like to give him a lot of personality. I think that's like important. Yeah, they do. Each one's got usually just like a pretty generic human name. And then Billy and Eric's and Jerry's.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Okay. So go ahead. I'm I'm thinking that we're heading towards like, wow, how do we find you and what how do people how do people embrace what you do and and buy what you do and commission what you do? Where can we go where can they go?

SPEAKER_04 37:43

Um well, Zachmax.com has most of the information. My Instagram is the most updated, and that's at zac.max, z-a-c.m-a-x. Um my YouTube has most of my animations, but I'm generally pretty bad at updating all of the things, just like most artists. But I'm getting better and with the new shop there'll be uh additional websites coming and Instagram will keep everybody kind of apprised of anything that I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

And and from for somebody like me, just going going on any of those sites and just sort of peeking at those those animations, it's just fun. It doesn't really have to be a current one. It could be something from that you did a year or two ago. It doesn't it doesn't affect anything other than the wow factor of this is just so cute. You know, these little these little metal things are running all over the screen. They're great. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

Well, so listen, this has been an inspiring conversation. Fascinating process. It's been fun for me. Um, you know, your ability to take something as raw and industrial as scrap metal and then make it come alive is just is just amazing. So so we we are so grateful to have you here and to uh to speak with you and to help you uh tell your story, and that's really what Full Steam Ahead is all about. So thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_04 39:03

Absolute pleasure and a lot of fun talking about it.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

I'm excited to see where this all goes. And I'm excited to give you some nails and some screws. That's that's uh come take a welding class at Zach Max Studios in Young's New York. Seriously could happen, Zach. Don't be surprised. And I love seeing everything you do, you know, then and just even it that we we went to uh an establishment recently and saw these little bottle openers against the wall. Oh yeah. And you know, things that things that you do are really fun, and I think people should check out your website just for the just for the fun of it. And uh and maybe the bigger.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

Jellyfish bottle opener with magnets in it so that it catches the bottle caps.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

It hangs it on the wall.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

It doesn't only catch one bottle cap, it'll catch multiple bottle caps. Listen to me. You want a you want a bottle opener for your smack max. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 39:53

You can just hang it up on your wall and the littlest stuff for twenty dollars all the way up to twenty thousand dollar giant sculptures. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

I would encourage anybody listening to just check it out.

SPEAKER_00 40:04

Or you want to commission you want to commission uh uh a sculpture? Get a hold of Zach.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

We don't work for the guy. We just think it's really fun. Do check it out. Zach, thank you so much so much. It was it was great.

SPEAKER_00 40:18

So, once again, for our listeners and viewers, we encourage you to check out Zach at Zachmax.com, where you can access his galleries, animations, upcoming workshops, info about the Flashburn Art Festival, photos, and contact information. To learn more about Steam Fund, please visit our website at Steamfund.org, like our social media page, follow us on Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube pi channel, and share these episodes with your friends. It's the best way to keep the arts and the conversations moving full Steam Ahead. Thanks so much for tuning in, and we'll see you next time on Full Steam Ahead.