YOUNGSVILLE, NY — Zac Shavrick’s interest in metal sculpting began when he was a child. At two or three years old, he watched his father create his own metal sculptures. “Sometimes I would doodle with scrap metal and my dad would weld it for me. My early pieces were just little flat plates of steel with eyes and a mouth on it,” the son remembered. “By the time I was five, I started doing the welding myself.”

At the time, his father would take on welding students and Shavrick, then about five or six years old, would be his assistant whenever there were multiple students. “Because we only had so many welding machines that we could turn on at once, I’d help one person and my dad would help another person.” He would continue teaching into his adult life. 

Shavrick’s interest increased as the years went by and while a student at Purchase College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, he took classes in bronze casting, welding and working with different kinds of metals. “I would either be the shop assistant or the teacher’s assistant,” he said, and he gained experiences that would serve him well after he graduated.

Although he’d like to do bronze casting, he doesn’t have the facilities at present to do it. He hopes that will change in the future: “You need a melter so that you can melt the metal. Then you need a crane to lift up the pot of metal, and then a special pouring system and a sand pit.” 

Now, he says, he is known for his unique sculptures, and he describes them as monsters and demons and other kinds of crazy characters. He works primarily with steel and said he lets his imagination run wild in the sculptures he creates. 

He also accepts commissions. When he is approached by a potential client, he said, “I make sure the commissions fit with my style. I don’t take on commissions that are too far off what I’m known for.” 

Each year, Shavrick holds an event called the Flashburn Festival. “When you stare at the weld without a shield on—unprotected—you get damage to your eyes. That’s called a flash burn,” he said. The festival usually takes place in August and is mostly a celebration of music and art. 

He remembers how, many years ago, he did a successful Kickstarter project, an online fundraising campaign during which he also invited people to send in pictures of themselves. “I turned them into sculptures, either human likenesses or monstrous variants.” Pictures came from many different countries and Shavick considered the campaign a success, leading to many sales. “There were like 30 or 50 different countries where I sold those little sculptures,” he said.

Today, his sculptures can be found in private homes and businesses, and he creates public art for local towns such as Rock Hill and Hancock. He also has large sculptures in Sullivan County, in California and in New York City. “I’ve also built sculptures on site in Israel, massive sculptures 10 feet high,” he said. He has had gallery shows, including one at New Memories in Parksville.

While he has students now who take occasional welding classes, including a monthly class in the New Memories parking lot, he recently built a large shop on his property in Youngsville. When completed, it will allow him to hold regular classes there. “I’ll probably do a regular workshop every week where we have an intro class,” he said. Later, for those who are really interested and who have completed the introductory class, he might offer something a little more advanced, teaching them things such as different techniques. He is considering offering apprenticeships as well.

“With the new shop, we’re going to have a split focus on welding and also blacksmithing,” Shavrick said. Because welding and blacksmithing overlap, he has taken blacksmithing classes to add to his repertoire.

Blacksmithing is an ancient craft that is currently having a renaissance, thanks to a reality television show, “Forged in Fire.” “I was thinking of local people here who might need a blacksmith,” Shavrick said, considering his plans for the future. “I wouldn’t mind offering a horseshoe class or inviting professional blacksmiths to come in and teach a class on how to make horseshoes the old-fashioned way.” That would allow someone with a horse farm or a ranch, for example, to come in and make as many horseshoes as he or she would need. 

More information about Shavrick and photos of some of his sculptures can be found on his website, www.zacmax.com, and at @zac.max on Instagram.