About Me
THE BRIEF BIO
Artist, musician, and photographer born in Sydney in 1973.
Studied visual arts at Meadowbank TAFE and the Canberra School of Art.
Record, book and movie collector.
THE LONG STORY
I was born in Sydney in 1973. Lenz isn't my original last name. I took the name from a novella by Georg Buchner. For marketing purposes, i.e. getting people to gigs, I found my actual last name, Crnkovic, was too difficult. Australians couldn't spell it, say it or remember it.
As a kid all I did then was draw. I was very good at it. Later, when I was about 15, I started taking photography seriously, and I started making music when I was 20. At 25 I started writing songs, and finally at the age of 29 I performed live.
II studied visual arts at Meadowbank TAFE and the Canberra School of Art. I majored in Photography at both institutions but I also did painting and life drawing. Drawing is a great backbone to any arts practice. All up I did 5 and a half years at art school. I had some great teachers at both schools who I learnt a lot from, people like Jocelyn Maughan, Robin Norling, Tony Deguara, Stephanie Valentin, Brandt Lewis, Arthur Lawrence, Ante Dabro, Martyn Jolly, Denise Ferris and Helen Ennis. I'm grateful to all these people for what they taught me.
One of the people I learned most from was my friend, Jon Lewis. He used to be part of the Yellow House and was a fantastic portrait photographer, one of the best.
I’ve done a lot of photography, poster and / or CD cover design for bands, festivals and for theatrical productions. I've also shot some video clips for acts like the Gadflys, Mikelangelo and the Tin Star, Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen, and the Black Horses.
I've performed my music as a solo artist and with my band, the Spirits of the Dead, in many places in the Eastern states of Australia, primarily Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. I've also performed at festivals such as the National Folk Festival and the Majura Festival. My music has been played on ABC Radio National, Triple J, ABC 666, Art Sound, Rtr FM and 2xx FM. I don't know what genre my music fits in, it's a mix of styles, folk blues, rock and roll, sometimes trad jazz, calypso, and other styles. I like different sounds and in my recordings I've made use of all sorts of instrumentation - guitar, violin, viola, cello, sitar, toy piano, melodica, harmonium, banjo, glockenspiel, marimbas, and so on. I've had the pleasure of working with some fine musicians - Phil Moriarty of the Gadflys, Mikelangelo of the Black Sea Gentlemen, Cazzbo Johns of the National Junk Band and Opera Australia, blues harmonica maestro Jim Conway of Captain Matchbox, violinist and saw player Emma Jasmine Kelly (Happy Axe), singer/songwriter Tom Woodward, jazz double bass player Gareth Hill, pianist and film composter Munro Melano, and film composer/record producer Geir S. Brillian to name a few.
My greatest obsession is cinema. I love how it is a synthesis of all art forms. I love movies of all genres, from all over the world and from the entire history of cinema. Over the years I have been involved in programming films for film groups like the Big House Film Society (which I co-founded with my friend, Roger Westcombe) and for the Canberra International Film Festival.
I'm also an obsessive collector. At home I have over 2000 albums on vinyl and another 1000 on CD, 2000 movies on DVD, over 10,000 books plus comics, film scripts and other paraphenalia. It's a good personal library/archive. There's always plenty to read or watch, there's always some thing to study or learn from, I never get bored. People always ask about influences, "who are your influences," that sort of thing. I always wonder "well, how much time do you have?" because really, there's a long, long list of artists I love and it's hard to say which have influenced me and who haven't. And anyway, everyone is an influence in one way or another.
Looking at the future, I intend to keep making music, art, photography and little films. I'm looking at hopefully making a book of my portrait photography soon. I also have plans to make a feature film one day, Red Dirt Timescape, a violent steampunk spaghetti western involving three characters, a McGuffin, and buckets of blood...
Artist, musician, and photographer born in Sydney in 1973.
Studied visual arts at Meadowbank TAFE and the Canberra School of Art.
Record, book and movie collector.
THE LONG STORY
I was born in Sydney in 1973. Lenz isn't my original last name. I took the name from a novella by Georg Buchner. For marketing purposes, i.e. getting people to gigs, I found my actual last name, Crnkovic, was too difficult. Australians couldn't spell it, say it or remember it.
As a kid all I did then was draw. I was very good at it. Later, when I was about 15, I started taking photography seriously, and I started making music when I was 20. At 25 I started writing songs, and finally at the age of 29 I performed live.
II studied visual arts at Meadowbank TAFE and the Canberra School of Art. I majored in Photography at both institutions but I also did painting and life drawing. Drawing is a great backbone to any arts practice. All up I did 5 and a half years at art school. I had some great teachers at both schools who I learnt a lot from, people like Jocelyn Maughan, Robin Norling, Tony Deguara, Stephanie Valentin, Brandt Lewis, Arthur Lawrence, Ante Dabro, Martyn Jolly, Denise Ferris and Helen Ennis. I'm grateful to all these people for what they taught me.
One of the people I learned most from was my friend, Jon Lewis. He used to be part of the Yellow House and was a fantastic portrait photographer, one of the best.
I’ve done a lot of photography, poster and / or CD cover design for bands, festivals and for theatrical productions. I've also shot some video clips for acts like the Gadflys, Mikelangelo and the Tin Star, Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen, and the Black Horses.
I've performed my music as a solo artist and with my band, the Spirits of the Dead, in many places in the Eastern states of Australia, primarily Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. I've also performed at festivals such as the National Folk Festival and the Majura Festival. My music has been played on ABC Radio National, Triple J, ABC 666, Art Sound, Rtr FM and 2xx FM. I don't know what genre my music fits in, it's a mix of styles, folk blues, rock and roll, sometimes trad jazz, calypso, and other styles. I like different sounds and in my recordings I've made use of all sorts of instrumentation - guitar, violin, viola, cello, sitar, toy piano, melodica, harmonium, banjo, glockenspiel, marimbas, and so on. I've had the pleasure of working with some fine musicians - Phil Moriarty of the Gadflys, Mikelangelo of the Black Sea Gentlemen, Cazzbo Johns of the National Junk Band and Opera Australia, blues harmonica maestro Jim Conway of Captain Matchbox, violinist and saw player Emma Jasmine Kelly (Happy Axe), singer/songwriter Tom Woodward, jazz double bass player Gareth Hill, pianist and film composter Munro Melano, and film composer/record producer Geir S. Brillian to name a few.
My greatest obsession is cinema. I love how it is a synthesis of all art forms. I love movies of all genres, from all over the world and from the entire history of cinema. Over the years I have been involved in programming films for film groups like the Big House Film Society (which I co-founded with my friend, Roger Westcombe) and for the Canberra International Film Festival.
I'm also an obsessive collector. At home I have over 2000 albums on vinyl and another 1000 on CD, 2000 movies on DVD, over 10,000 books plus comics, film scripts and other paraphenalia. It's a good personal library/archive. There's always plenty to read or watch, there's always some thing to study or learn from, I never get bored. People always ask about influences, "who are your influences," that sort of thing. I always wonder "well, how much time do you have?" because really, there's a long, long list of artists I love and it's hard to say which have influenced me and who haven't. And anyway, everyone is an influence in one way or another.
Looking at the future, I intend to keep making music, art, photography and little films. I'm looking at hopefully making a book of my portrait photography soon. I also have plans to make a feature film one day, Red Dirt Timescape, a violent steampunk spaghetti western involving three characters, a McGuffin, and buckets of blood...
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