Images from the other side, taken while I built the set and photographed Kara for my series, ERRANDS. Images by Kara Korab.
I have always collected the discarded or left-behind: my favorite item being the receipt I saved from when my father took me to Hooters restaurant for my sixteenth birthday just to see how I reacted to the waitresses. My visual art is my chance to construct the worlds I saw when I was younger and still wish to inhabit now. I loan my fluorescent beige-colored glasses to my viewers and through this gesture of friendship, I create dialogues about romanticizing bric-a-brac, shopping mall celebrities, and how maybe, just maybe, it’s Maybelline©.
Magical realism is the muse that guides my hand to balance object upon object. I combine photography with an arts & crafts aesthetic to imbue these souvenirs with all sort of pomp and circumstance; tapping them on their funny bones just to see what happens.
From first love to first heartbreak and back again, these mementos mingle with 1980s ephemera, and take shape inside dioramas I build from thrift store magic. I am a big flirt with even bigger ideas and these are my elements. I document these things because they carry a certain something that runs throughout my life—something I want to share with others.
I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2003 and a Masters in Arts Administration from Columbia University Teachers College in 2005.
In addition to my work as a visual artist, I have constructed a career where the fields of healthcare and art education intersect to provide community and access programs to individuals who are D/deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf-Blind. For 16 years I served as the Deaf Services Program Manager for the Highlandtown Healthy Living Center (BMSI) in Baltimore, Maryland USA. Some of my most memorable, proudest moments were spent there, and, while teaching arts education classes, across the country and overseas, to D/deaf and Hard of Hearing youth in foster care.
In July 2022, I relocated from Baltimore, Maryland USA to Lamphun, Thailand where I now live and work with my partner.
Come visit! Lets make art together!
Instagram: @zzhandler
Contact: