Spudnik Press’ Residency Program provides the resources, equipment, and space for one artist per season to develop a body of print-based work. We hope to encourage and enable the production of high quality prints, and to contribute to the development of an emerging Chicago artist.

Welcome Veronica Siehl!
Veronica Siehl’s print and drawing work employs repetitive mark making; she creates texture, furry bits and visual noise. She intentionally addresses the surface – marking, cloaking or interfering – so that the viewer might question what lies just beneath. At the heart of her work lies a curiosity with the idea of identity and a fascination with all the “stuff” that individuals are made up and out of; by what it means to be.

Veronica investigates and works with shadow – as subject, medium and metaphor. Shadows defy time in their ability to simultaneously be present and absent. According to Jungian psychology, the shadow is our subconscious; it is what we have hidden. In addition to acknowledging this archetype, Veronica views the shadow as a reminder of the many faces individuals wear openly. Through explorations with shadow, mark making, time and space she explores places which are un-mappable, feelings that are unnameable, and instances that might otherwise be forgotten.

In working with letterpress and cyanotype processes paired with poetry at Spudnik, Veronica aims to pay homage to the emotions that transcend our daily lives and take on a life of their own. Through employing shadow and repetition (in writing & process) she will explore themes of potential and loss, nature & nurture and the evolution/progression of the individual.

Call for fall entries by June 21, 2013
Download the application for complete details.

The Down and Dirty radio show with Frank Fontana focuses on Do-It-Yourself design for your home. Expert, regular guy celebrity designer Frank Fontana will share secrets to making your place look like a million bucks in smart, affordable ways! Join Frank live as he answers questions and makes you part of the show, interviews celebrity guests, and shares hot DIY design secrets you won’t hear anywhere else. Tune in to the Craftsman World of DIY network right here on Livestream every Wednesday at 11am Central Time to join in on the conversation. Join in the conversation by dialing 855-DIY-WORLD… or email downanddirtyradio@gmail.com

In case you missed it, here’s the radio spot featuring Angee Lennard and Spudnik Press Cooperative.
Click here to listen to the radio spot.

Click here for the YouTube Video.

ART ATTACK! Sculpture Show
Thursday, May 9th: 5-7pm
Uri-Eichen Gallery
2101 S Halsted St, Chicago

This spring, Spudnik Press partnered with Citizen Schools to pair five Spudnik artists with three classrooms to lead art apprenticeships with middle school students through out the spring.

ART ATTACK! Is a Citizen Schools after school apprenticeship at Walsh Elementary. Every week, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students meet with teaching artist Liz Born to develop a language of visual identity using formal elements like color, shape, and texture. Transforming everyday materials, each student has created an emblematic sculpture in an investigation of the Artist’s decision-making process.

Citizen Schools partners with middle schools to expand the learning day for children in low-income communities across the country. By drawing thousands more citizens into schools each year, they’re promoting achievement, transforming schools, and re-imagining education in America.

Peasants!
Your vegetables are progressing nicely. We are looking at mid June as our first pick-up but will email one more time towards the end of May to give you the actual start date.

The farm staff is moving quickly this week since it has been “the only consecutively nice days since September” according to Todd and, according to the weather channel, bound to rain again.

All farmers in this region have had to delay their plantings due to cold, wet and just plain wet soil.  We did get spinach seeded before the rain, which has germinated. Kale, chard and broccoli have been/are being transplanted this week until the rain returns.

We do a few things to make sure the crops transplant well. One thing we do is blast them with fans while they grow indoors, to condition them to the world outside. We have put a thin covering of fabric (“row cover”) over the transplants this week to protect against any surprise frosts and to hopefully discourage bunnies. Lots of transplants await indoors and they will be ready when the soil is! Todd is continuing his work on the high tunnels, digging holes for concrete to anchor them. Oh, the saga of the high tunnels!

Check out most recent photos here.
Reserve your share of the harvest before we sell out!

Curated by:

Liz Mason and Neil Brideau

Featured Artists:

Edie Fake, Rinko Endo, Kathleen McIntyre, Ramsey Beyer, Liz Prince, Dina Kelberman, Sara McHenry, and more.

Dates:

4/20/13 – 5/31/13

Location:

The Annex at Spudnik Press

Opening Reception:

April 20, 2013, 6:00 – 9:00pm

Press Release:

Care is a disquieted state of mixed uncertainty, apprehension, and responsibility; a suffering of the mind; painstaking and watchful attention, maintenance, charge, and supervision. Self-care and first aid places these concerns towards oneself with a DIY mentality. Long-Arm Stapler First Aid brings together an assortment of zines and comics that address health-related issues ranging from mental to physical, personal to societal, and preventative to regenerative. These largely self-published works address, at times, incredibly personal experiences, usually with a large dose of wit.

Unlike a film or a painting, readers of zines and comics are able to engage with these works at their own pace, choosing when they are ready to confront the next page. Perhaps this is what allows authors to broach difficult, and often very personal, topics with great breadth of emotion, honesty, and clarity. Through the combination of words and images, artists are able to rely on multiple modes of communication to bring together the tangible and the cerebral. Often the very act of making a zine is considered a therapeutic caring action.

This exhibition of largely self-published works tackles self-care from many angles: health, grooming, food preparation, self-defense, coping strategies, defense mechanisms, mental or spiritual development and even soul enrichment. At their core these pieces suggest we must be our own advocates for our own health and well being.

Long Arm Stapler First Aid will also include a limited edition exhibition zine, compiled by Liz Mason, encompassing relevant self-care themes in zines and mini-comics such as: heal- ing, grief, fitness, and medical issues, and a limited edition screenprint by Ramsey Beyer, published by Spudnik Press.

In honor of self-publishing as a means to foster well-being, Spudnik Press is proud to host this exhibition featuring dozens of zine makers from across the country, including Edie Fake, Rinko Endo, Kathleen McIntyre, Ramsey Beyer, Liz Prince, Dina Kelberman, Sara McHenry, and more.

Liz Mason is the manager of Quimby’s, as well as the editor and publisher for Caboose.
Neil Brideau is comics artist and comics sommelier at Quimby’s, as well as an organizer of CAKE, Chicago’s Alternative Comics Expo.

1821 Hubbard Open House / Closing for Long Arm Stapler First Aid

Open Studios, Live Music, Food & Drink!

Friday, May 17, 2013
6:00 – 10:00pm

1821 W Hubbard, Suite 303
Chicago, IL 60622

Come roam three floors of open studios, unexpected spaces and  galleries at the HUGE ART SHOW. Music will play, drinks will be served and you might just find that piece you’ve been looking for. Multiple studio open house!

From chic hairstyles and large scale photography to letterpress printing, intricate oil painting, and raw furniture manufacture. 1821 W Hubbard is home to a wide array of creative work.

Cesar Chavez Lower Grade Center 4747 S. Marshfield Ave. 60609
Tuesday, May 14th 5:30-7:00pm

Chavez Community WOW!

This spring, Spudnik Press partnered with Citizen Schools to pair five Spudnik artists with three classrooms to lead art apprenticeships with middle school students throughout the spring. You are invited to the Citizen Schools Spring Community WOW! At this event, the middle school students will show off what they have learned in the past 10 weeks of their apprenticeship.

Guests will get to learn new yoga moves, play student made video games, pick a side in a political campaign, participate in an improv sketch, see student artwork, and much much more! We need your to help make this WOW! memorable for our students, educators, and volunteers.

Please join us: RSVP and Learn More

Wednesday, May 15 at 7:30

Join us in The Printshop for our Member Meeting. We will discuss upcoming events and activities, plus ways that you can be more involved at Spudnik Press! Have any suggestions or ideas for us? The Member Meeting is the perfect time to share your thoughts.

Thank you to all who made it out to help for Spudnik’s Spring Cleaning Day! What a difference it made to our studio. This past Sunday, an eager group of volunteers split off into cleaning, organizing, and painting frenzies to transform Spudnik into a tidy print shop once again.

We are especially excited about the light blue washout room and white table top in the print shop. Not to mention the new curtain installed in the dark room, clean scoop coaters, desk, ink station, sinks, and more! Be sure to drop by the studio for printing and to see all of the changes. Happy printing in our newly cleaned studio!

🙂

Spudnik Press and Peasants’ Plot Summer 2013 CSA

This summer Spudnik Press will take on its second year as a pick-up location for Peasants’ Plot CSA, an organic vegetable farm located about 50 miles south of Chicago in Kankakee County.

The Plot is carried out by Todd and Julia McDonald, about 5 employees and 15 worker shareholders. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it is a way for people to know where their produce is coming from and how it is grown. Participating in a CSA farm means investing in seed and labor prior to the growing season. Your investment pays off in the form of regular deliveries of fresh vegetables straight from the farm.

WHAT:
Delivery of four to seven different types of freshly-harvested organic vegetables.

WHERE:
Pick up at Spudnik Press!

WHEN:
Every Thursday from 3 – 9 pm for twenty weeksbeginning the first or second week of June.

HOW MUCH:
$340 for the basic Individual Share. Pay in full or use our monthly installment plan. Pay buttons for both options are on the website.

WHY:
The CSA model is rewarding because the consumer can establish a relationship with their farmer through farm visits, emails, exchanging recipes and more. It is a relationship-based approach to the business of growing, selling and distributing food.

Buying locally-produced food reduces the chain of people and energy consumption between farmer and consumer. Want to know how your food is grown? Visit the farm and see. Worried about pesticides and disease? Talk with Todd and Julia. Is all the buzz about GMOs FREAKING YOU OUT? You can address all of these concerns with the farmer directly.

It is an easy way to assure a good amount of vitamins, nutrients and anti-oxidants get into your diet. Freshly-picked vegetables have more nutrient content than foods that travel great distances to sit in grocery stores. And they taste better.

For information about Peasants’ Plot and how you can join, visit their website.

THANK YOU to everyone who came out to the Hashbrown 2013! Also a big thank you to the volunteers who made it all possible, especially the participants who brought us all the chili!

In an effort to raise money for our New Vandercook Press, we were able to collect nearly $2,000 with our Chili cook-off. We stuffed our faces with Meat and Vegetarian Chili as we listened to music and voted for our favorite print shop recipe.

Who won you ask?
It was a close race! Withing the last 10 minutes or so, The Printstitute tallied in enough votes to win the Golden Squeegie for the Meat category and The Chicago Printmaker’s Collaborative (CPC) took home the Gold for the vegetarian category.

It’s not too soon to perfect your chili recipe for next year’s event!

Click Here for all of our event photos

Interested in being the next Artist in Residence at Spudnik Press? The application deadline for our Summer residency is April 22. Click here for more information and to download the application!