07/27/2026
Please give. Put that good out into this world. Someday, when it’s your turn to need it, you’ll be glad you did.
Steve Zihlavsky (and Steve Zihlavsky - Artist) was a friend of mine.
A man of almost zero self-consciousness, he was just as apt to break into spontaneous, tune-adjacent song as he was to lean in close to tell an eyeroll-worthy dad joke. Steve’s generosity was boundless, his welcome engulfing, his joie de vivre a contagion.
I worked closely with Steve on a passion project featuring a traumatic history we shared—Outlier carries the indelible mark of this extraordinary human on every single one of the sixteen, decades-old doors he handpicked, physically-carried to me, and hand-wrought into the accordioned backdrops that would hold each survivor’s story for the brave fellow comrades who dared to live their traumatic experience publicly and out loud alongside Steve and me. We left shame on the other side of those doors, where it fu***ng belongs.
Long hours, together we swung hammers and drove bolts into the structure and bones of the most important story I’ve ever told, with words and camera and wood and sweat equity and a whole lotta heart. Steve taught me how to erect and strike Outlier all by myself, which was fitting, for some battles we fight alone, and that was never more true for me than it was with Outlier.
I find myself sitting in this dark silence tonight weeping for the loss of this good man who left us too soon. I’m so grateful I have his work on my walls in my home. To know him was to love him, and if I knew anything at all of Steve Zihlavsky it was certainly this: Steve was madly and eternally in love with his beloved bride, Tammy.
So here we have this momentous opportunity to honor and remember a man who was a loving friend to so very many of us by ensuring that we continue what he made his life’s sweetest commitment—caring for Tammy—now, in his absence.
Follow the link below to share what you can to help Tammy pick up what remains and somehow carry on in this her time of devastating loss.
Tammy, we love you and we loved Steve. May joy and comfort find you and may your Love rest in eternal peace.
https://gofund.me/2676f896