Greg W. Locke (b. 1980, Fort Wayne, IN)—sometimes answering to Bozo Locke—is a Portland, Oregon–based filmmaker, designer, and painter moving laterally across mediums with a stubborn, unromantic devotion to making things. He studied graphic design at Indiana University, then drifted into freelance music and film journalism, writing by day and managing record stores by necessity—commerce and culture sharing the same dimly lit room. By 25, he was Managing Editor of Whatzup Magazine, publishing widely in TinyMixTapes, PopMatters, Amazon, NUVO, Whatzup, The Fort Wayne Reader, The Journal-Gazette, and elsewhere—assembling, piece by piece, a language for obsession.

A stretch in Seattle gave way to his first feature, Holler and the Moan, an art house music documentary tracking singer-songwriter Lee Miles as he collides with both creative clarity and a nameless illness. Around this time, Locke began painting every day—no manifesto, no audience required—a practice that has not stopped since. After the film’s festival run, he moved to New York City, entering the film industry while continuing to build a parallel life in paint.

In New York, he worked in camera departments on productions like Broad City, Blue Bloods, Louie, and Dish Nation—watching the machinery run while quietly plotting his own departures. He wrote and directed two additional features, Forever Into Space and Drinking Water, earning more than two dozen award nominations along the way. He also helped produce over 1,000 videos for Sweetwater, directed three award-winning short films, and completed an ever-expanding archive of original paintings—work accumulating faster than it can be categorized.

At the same time, he embedded himself in the city’s marketing world, moving from freelance design into an in-house role as Graphic Designer at the Strand Book Store, then on to a series of Creative Director positions—learning how images behave when they’re asked to sell something versus when they’re allowed to mean something.

From 2023 to 2025, he worked in management at Rough Trade in the 30 Rockefeller Plaza building—another intersection of music, routine, and passing conversations. Then, leaving New York behind, he relocated to Portland, Oregon, where he now serves as Marketing and Promotions Manager at Music Millennium, one of the largest and oldest independent record stores in the United States.

Most recently, Locke presented a solo exhibition at Mint Gallery: 109 new works, including 40 paintings—less a statement than a ledger of time spent alone in a small room.