Zoomtopia

Carole Zoom was born in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and attended the University of Texas. After living in Austin for 10 years, where she worked as a community organizer, Zoom relocated to Eugene, Ore., in 1994 to run international leadership exchange programs for people with disabilities from all over the world. In Eugene, Zoom helped found the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (DIVA) and Lane Independent Living Alliance (LILA) while her husband, the writer Brett Campbell, taught journalism at the University of Oregon. Zoom and Campbell relocated from Eugene to Portland, Ore., in 2006. 
As an artist, Zoom produces woodblock prints and photographs that explore the continuum of life, death and disability; adjustments to living with a tracheostomy, using a ventilator, and requiring assistance to do the most basic things in life; and finding loving support around her. Her visual artwork has allowed her to make sense of her experience, reshape her perspective on the world, and return to it with vigor after the completion of her recovery. She chooses not to use a press for her prints, and her work intentionally and artfully reveals her considerable muscle weakness, a result of her muscular dystrophy.  
Her prints have been displayed at White Lotus Gallery, Island Park Gallery, LaFollette Gallery, New Zone, Broadway Market Gallery, ImagineStation (PA), NorthBank Gallery and ArtPRN. Portland Mayor Sam Adams bought five pieces by Zoom to present as gifts to dignitaries on a recent diplomatic and trade mission to Japan. Her photography has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Portland Monthly, Country Living Magazine, Oregon Humanities and Eugene Weekly. 
In 2007, Zoom received an award from the Portland Citizen’s Disability Advisory Committee for advocacy in art. In 2006, the Lane Arts Council recognized her significant contributions to the artistic community. In 2004, she won first place in the VSA’s regional No Boundaries: Hopes & Dreams show. In 2003, she won an honorable mention for the Lilla Jewel Award for Visual Artists. 
Zoom is a co-chair of the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation and a member of Benchmark Printmakers, Women’s Printmakers of Austin, Emerald Photographic Society and Portland Open Studios 2008 and 2009.