ZACK HANDLER

Zack Handler is a Brooklyn-based multimedia artist who delights in play at the intersection of fantasy, innocence, and chaos. Across digital illustration, film, and animation, Zack is concerned with building worlds that feel at once sublime and suffocating, utopic and neptunian.
Zack’s work has been screened at venues including the Baumann NYC. In 2021, Zack was a winter resident at ChaNorth (Pine Plains, NY). He graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts studying Film and Art History.

Hi Zack. Thanks for joining me at Mint Tea. To begin, what’s your favorite tea? If you don’t drink tea, what kind of coffee or drink do you enjoy the most?

I'm a coffee person, but I don't like to be overly reliant on coffee. Sometimes I'll do green tea to break it up, so I'm not having coffee every day. If I am doing coffee, it's pretty simple: oat milk iced coffee. Hazelnut, maybe, too.

Could you tell me about your background and your practice?

I grew up in Brewster, New York, and spent my whole childhood there. It's kind of rural, but it's the last stop on one of the Metro North lines, so I think there was always a little bit of access to metropolitan culture in that way. Then I came to the city later, so I've been in New York State my whole life, basically. As far as my background in practice, I've been drawing since I was three months old. I would make comics since I was five. They were never rooted in reality, they were always whole worlds, with outlandish characters doing outlandish things. In addition to drawing, I did theater in high school, as well as video. So I had my feet wet in a lot of different things. I experimented with a lot through high school – photography, batik, special effects makeup – and then I also got into animation around age 14, so I spent a lot of time doing that. It's funny, like, I've always been really into fantasy, and I was really into special effects makeup. I would have hours alone after school a lot of times, and I would like do intricate, gory special effects, makeup, sometimes just to scare my mom when she came home. So that was my background, that was the kind of kid I was. And I think through all that experimentation, there was a deep love of the bizarre, the cult, horror movies. So I think that was a big part of my childhood that informs my practice now.

After high school, I went to NYU Film, and I got very interested in mixed live-action and animation while there, which informed the kind of work I was making for several years. I was just really interested in integrating animated creatures with live-action environments. I think a lot of my college years were just spent leaning into some of the technical elements of things I've always I've always been interested in.  Since college, I've been a video editor and animator for work, as well as being an animator with my personal projects. I think a lot of the technical skill I was developing through a lot of my professional endeavors ended up having a big influence on my personal work.

What projects are you working on right now?

I’ve got a couple things going on right now. I recently opened up a shop, so that's been something I'm excited to develop and build more. I'm really excited about the social component of it, actually being able to go places and sell my work and talk to people who might be interested in it. I'm also currently developing an art book, called “Higher Realms.” It's a series of illustrations and comics, all with themes centered around escapism, and fantasy, and queerness. I also just finished up doing some single artwork with Ms. White, a musician who I collaborate with a lot. We've actually been exploring 3-D, which is a medium I'm more new to. It's been really cool to do some of that for her. I'm also developing and currently animating several short films.

But as of late, for the first time in my life, I'm practicing focusing on one thing at a time, which used to be something I never did. So while all those things are in development, I've recently come to the conclusion it's best to have my feet totally submerged in one thing, rather than many things at once. So the art book is my primary focus right now. Really the whole backbone of the book is – while the images are not necessarily related in subject matter, I want there to sort of feel like there's a narrative chronology to it. And I want it to be a narrative that takes someone from the mundane trappings of our reality, and gradually skyrockets you into this bombastic, almost violent fantasy toward the end. So I'm really interested in making an art book that kind of starts rooted in reality, but blasts you off to space.

I am the most familiar with your digital illustrations and animations. What inspires your style and colors?

The short answer would be Ray Harryhausen, William Blake, and John Tenniel. John Tenniel was the illustrator of the original prints for Alice in Wonderland, and I just remember, in high school I always had an interest in the formal elements of being able to render intricate fantastical things with some sort of virtuosity and realism. So, John Tenniel,was really seminal for me, because he would make this intricate, highly detailed line work of like, a caterpillar smoking a hookah or, you know, the Cheshire Cat grinning. Those were really formative.

As far as more recent influences, I'm really inspired by Clive Barker – he did the Hellraiser series. I really like how his stories feel so queer without literal touches of queerness. From a lot of what I've read, I feel that what defines queerness beyond sexuality and gender identity is fantasy, or in other words, imagining outside of the bounds and structures imposed on us. And so by that measure, I feel fantasy is queer, and I feel like Clive Barker is someone who, with a movie like Hellraiser, when you break it down the plot is just – these queer-adjacent demons doing sadomasochistic experiments, exploring the far most regions of pleasure and pain and alternate dimensions. So I like that idea of imbuing things with an almost like otherworldly sense of emotion and expression, something that feels kind of enrapturing and both like ecstasy and torment.

I think that's something I see in his work that I really want to channel into my own. And so what that looks like, speaking practically, is there may be a fanciful maximalism or a vibrant color palette to what I'm doing, but at the same time, I feel like you know, the use of black in my image sometimes feels like scars like coming out of the piece. So I'm very inspired by the duality. I'm very inspired by the sort of queer, balls out fantasy of his work. I think it makes me want to do something similar, something that feels like it's just exploding at the seams and has like a real duality to it of ecstasy and suffering on some level.

Can you talk about any imagery or symbols that you like to work with?

I think most obviously, faces. I simply have an insatiable compulsion to draw faces. I think this comes from my interest in Western art history, and simply being interested in rendering faces with particular romantic and perhaps innocent qualities. I think in college, I would just look at like a Caravaggio or Leonardo da Vinci face and be like, “I want to learn to be able to make a face like that.” Because they're landscapes unto themselves, and I don't see how you could not simply be interested in exploring them over and over again, seeing how different passages of a face elicit different feelings. I'm just kind of addicted.

I think gemstones tend to come into my work a lot, simply because I like how they straddle the line between the representational and the abstracted. They're very elemental forms, and so I feel like sometimes when I'm making super crowded, baroque compositions, I like that they're a more abstract form to break up the representational chaos.

I guess the last thing – water is very recurring. For me, water is a world I explore, and I think symbolically speaking, I simply like that water connotes the subconscious and all the murkiness that's associated with that. That's just a space that I quite like, so I like to spend a lot of time making art featuring that sort of space.

I often see figures in your work. Who are they? Do you identify with any of them? Do they serve as a form of self-portrait in any way?

I think of them as blank slates, almost. That being said, I think I want people to fill them in with whatever they like. I'm much more interested in figures as kind of tabula rasa, semiotic blank canvases, rather than characters. But personally, I find myself projecting an innocence and a whimsy on a lot of my figures. But I think to summarize, they're blank slates that facilitate stepping into the sort of high fantasy I'm going for. I like the ambiguity and I want people to fill in their own wishes, dreams, desires, onto these people.

When you create your images what is the first thing that you think about? Colors? Compositions? Subject matter?

I think I often start by having just an itch to draw a certain thing, without any particular sense of composition. Early on from there, I'm able to start to surmise what kind of feeling I want out of the piece. Sometimes I do have a color palette in mind, but I will almost wait until that moment once I've begun something and gotten a sense of the tone of the piece and what else I might want represented. Once I have all of that I figured out, I have kind of a mental Rolodex of different color palettes I like, and I'll kind of cross reference how the piece is going to the palette that makes sense in my mind. But no matter the content, it's most important to me how I want the viewer to feel from it.

Can you talk about the relationship between your digital practice and your animations? How does working in multiple media affect your practice?

Interestingly, I'm always keeping a sketchbook, as well as doing my digital work. But I've found lately that because of how clean you can get line and color, and various effects on a computer, I've come to approach digital work more formally. And so my sketchbook is really important – my hand drawn work that I don't even necessarily show to people is very important, because it keeps me rooted in spontaneity. I think sometimes with digital art there can feel like there's a real rigidity to it because of how perfect you can get it. But as far as my digital stuff, art and animation, I think it's influenced me, the mixed media nature of what I do has allowed me to sort of dissolve a lot of divides between the moving image and the still image and how I work with them. I find myself using After Effects, even for still images, because I've come to love some of the textures that I can achieve with it. I love the Photoshop to After Effects workflow. I finish almost all my drawings in After Effects. So I think doing animation, as well as doing a lot of digital illustration has allowed me to use programs in unexpected ways, and to blur the line with how I work with still imagery versus moving images. I find it very liberating to sort of approach them in similar ways.

I see that you’ve recently been working with GIFs as well. Do you create the initial images with motion in mind or do you decide to animate the images once finished?

I usually create the GIFs with movement in mind. Because I like so much detail and intricate line work. I feel that if I start out not knowing it will be moving. I may add so much detail that it's difficult to animate frame by frame.

One work of yours that I love is “Pariatha.” Can you please talk about your process? What was it like realizing your characters as clay sculptures?

Specifically realizing the characters as clay sculptures, I started with a drawing of these creatures and they basically inspired the whole film. I started by drawing several of these monsters, and noticed a cohesion to them in my sketchbook, like maybe they were part of the same environment. And then I started to think, okay, well, if all of these creatures are in the same world, is this some sort of ecosystem? That's where the whole film started, was imagining this sort of distorted sexual ecosystem that feels like it's in another dimension. It all started from these drawings of the characters.

Like I said earlier, I'm very, I'm deeply inspired by Ray Harryhausen, he is the wizard of 50s through 80s VFX and movies. If you've ever seen a monster movie where there's a stop motion monster and a bunch of live action people, he was the grandfather of mixed stop motion/live-action. So I really wanted to, in a digital context, make a film similar to the kinds that he was making. I wanted the characters originally to be made out of silicone with armatures in them. So I made a silicone puppet, and I found that silicone was too expensive for me to make the amount of heads I would want. So I decided against that and went with clay models to allow for more flexibility with their expressions.

As far as the process of animating them, me and my two amazing talented friends and collaborators Aarica North and Mitchell Zemil worked in my bedroom for a week, did all the animation in a week, almost all on miniature sets that we then kind of had to match to the live action. I really felt transported into that world to sit in a dark room and animate those models for a week.

Working with live actors, were you surprised to see people occupy your fantastical space? Would you direct more live action films in the future?

You know, shout out to Kurt McVey and Shelby Kern for being in it. I did not think it would be hard to find actors interested in being in this sort of sci-fi love triangle drama, but it was very hard to find actors, actually, who would be totally comfortable being nude in it. It was a delight to see live actors interacting with these miniature worlds that I created. Ultimately, it was very surprising and rewarding to see actors in such a high fantasy landscape. I think I would do live action in the future. But the whole experience did make me realize that, financially, it's a lot easier to realize some of these worlds in my room for $0 instead of the amount of money and resources that it can take to get a soundstage and hire a crew. But I'm certainly open to doing live action in the future. While I don’t look down on “Pariatha” at all, I think it was actually really formative in making me realize that I wanted to pursue animation further, thinking about how much of this fantasy could be achieved in my room, versus all the resources that go into a live action shoot. Definitely not knocking it forever, though. I would love to do live action again.

What is your favorite color? Does it find its way into your illustrations?

It's purple. Would you guess that? My little elevator pitch for purple is, I love how it's regal but not ostentatious. I feel there's something very noble about it. I associate it with velvet. I associate it with luxury. But I also think it's deep and mysterious, and kind of nocturnal. And I can get with all of those vibes. It certainly shows up in my work. But I feel like just like every color, I know when it's right to use. When that color palette comes to me that features purple, I'll gladly use it.

The figures in your works and the way they are drawn and posed almost reminds me of Greek mythology or superheroes. Do you have a favorite comic book or a favorite hero?

I'm not sure if I have a favorite hero in Greek mythology. I think so much of my work is steeped in a love of Renaissance art and antiquity that it would probably be hard for me to pick out one favorite mythological hero. As far as superheroes, it's interesting. In middle school, I was a total Marvel Comics guy. I loved X-Men, and I feel like I always connected with just the craziest looking mutants. I think Mystique would be my favorite comic book character, perhaps an anti-hero? I think given her shape shifting nature and being blue, there's just something very gay and fabulous about her to me.

Is there a new medium that you would like to try, or to work in more?

I'm just getting into 3-D, specifically Blender. I'm really excited to pursue that. I think it's a really interesting companion medium to drawing, because both mediums are kind of concerned with creating something out of virtually nothing. I think 3-D is really cool that way. I really like how, as I'm learning it, I think about materials in the real world totally differently. I really like how you can just create bonkers, far out worlds on your desktop.

What is beautiful to you?

Alpine landscapes, sharks, spiders.

How do you stay connected to your community?

This is a good question. And it was something I've been thinking a lot about. I think, with COVID, being creative has felt quite lonely. And I would say, while it's an ongoing process to stay connected to my community, as we leave the pandemic, I'm trying to collaborate more, which is really important, and something I haven't done enough of in the past. And for better or worse, Instagram. I've met a lot of artists through Instagram. I think there's a lot of issues with it as a platform, and I don't think it's the most conducive to being a creative. But I have met other artists through it, so I have to appreciate it for that. So those are the two ways.

What’s your favorite tool?

The liquify tool in Photoshop. Should I give a physical one too? I also love Microns and Body Double, which is like a mold making material.

 What is the space where do you your work?

So I do the majority of the work of my work in my room. I used to have this studio space, but when I opted to leave and switch to working from my room, I think whether conscious or not my work became a bit more digital, which I think is kind of interesting. I do a lot of creative thinking walking around my neighborhood. I live in Kensington, but I will go walk around the pretty houses in Ditmas Park and just think on images I've thought of and try to flesh things out that way. Walking in Ditmas Park is a good way for me to conceive of what I'm doing.

Do you listen to anything when you work? What music do you like to listen to?

I listen to music 24/7. I'm always listening to music when I'm working. I get just as much if not more inspiration, from music as I do from visual material. I tend to like things that also feel that feel like they're building a singular world. Sophie, Arca, and Grouper are a big three for me while I'm working. Sometimes if I'm feeling a more chill vibe, it'll be more like shoegazey kind of stuff, like Radio Department, Brian Jonestown Massacre, those sorts of bands, which also fits into the nebulous kind of subconscious region I want my work to tap into.

Do you have any ritual that helps you get into the zone?

Yeah, I'm a big proponent of tarot. So I pull a card every day. I think pulling cards can really help me set intentions about what sort of themes or principles I might want to be exploring when I'm sitting down to draw. I'll light a light some sage, pull some cards, and sometimes begin working from there.

When do you know when you are finished with your work?

Once I feel that adding anything to the frame would overpopulate it.

Who are your favorite practicing artists?

Ram Han, Miki Kim, Alice Bloomfield, and Camille Soulat. I like that they all have a very distinct, cultivated aesthetic. It feels like when I go to their Instagram page or their website, I'm sort of stepping into a universe that can't really experience through any other avenue. They have very singular world building tones. I guess a simpler way to put that is, they have what I feel is an honestly distinct style, which is rarer than you think. I tend to feel really allergic to a lot of illustration trends happening right now. I simply don't like a lot of the styles and applications that are popular right now. I think we're at a point with illustration where, because these programs can make such clean images, a lot of modern illustration trends are pushing that sort of aesthetic to its limits, and I find that wholly uninteresting, and devoid of humanity or idiosyncrasy. So I think all of those artists that I mentioned are able to use these same applications and programs, but make things that actually feel imbued with the human imagination, rather than gentrified corporate visual styles.

What gives you the feeling of butterflies in your stomach?

Romance. Creative progress that I'm proud of. New Year's Eve. Halloween.

zackhandler.com | @zackhandle