Emily Schulert

Sparkel

Emily Schulert is a comic, print and fiber artist based in Chicago. She runs an online store of her comics, apparel and prints “Sparkel” while tabling at various festivals around the US. Last year she founded and co-runs the collective “Chicago Skillshare Network” along with four of her friends, bringing affordable monthly workshops in arts and crafts to DIY and domestic spaces. She substitute teaches and babysits, always looking for odd jobs in between.

Services Offered:

• Graphic Design
• Illustration
• Printmaking Commissions

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Stan Shellabarger

Stan Shellabarger’s performance and book work addresses issues relating to the body. He often takes mundane, everyday activities like breathing, walking and writing to extreme measures in endurance-based performance work: walking from sunrise to sunset on solstices and equinoxes, counting every breath he takes in an 8 hour time span, filling notebook after notebook with his signature.

Shellabarger’s work amplifies the traces humans leave on the earth, as in his walking performances, or on objects, as in his Lightswitch and Mousepad books. The repetitive nature and long durations of Shellabarger’s performances lead to massive accumulations of marks and residues that record discrete units of time and space, elegant testimonies to the ephemeral and transient nature of life. The repetition of activity is necessary so that the extremely subtle marks left by these activities emerge as clearly visible artistic interventions. Despite their laborious process of transcription, the marks left by his performances are, like the body itself, ephemeral and transient in nature.

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April Sheridan

April Sheridan is a letterpress printer who is particularly interested in the artistic and experimental possibilities of the broadside and its historic place in American culture. For ten years she ran the letterpress printing, papermaking, and bookbinding studios at the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago. As an advocate for book arts education she has spoken at Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum Wayzgoose/Educators Conference, Letterpress: Forward Thinking Conference at St. Bride Library in London, and at the &Now Conference at CalArts. She currently serves on the boards of the American Printing History Association, Inland Chapter and the WasteShed and was previously assistant director of the Chicago Printers Guild.

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Emily Shopp

Fellow

Emily Shopp grew up in Dallas, Texas. In 2013, she received her BFA in Printmaking at Stephen F. Austin State University, where she was the 2012 recipient of the Cole Dean’s Award in Art. Shopp has been included in various juried exhibitions including the ​Printmaking National Exhibition​ at Mark Arts in Wichita, Kansas and ​23rd Arts in Harmony 2018 Annual International Show ​in Hopkins, MN.​ ​She currently lives and works in Chicago, IL.

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Project Statement:

Much of my recent work has been ironing out all of the technical aspects of this practice. As a studio fellow I would use these techniques to develop a new, cohesive series of variable prints and collages. I plan to focus on process, composition and emotional resonance by reconfiguring representational imagery into more abstract content. I would continue to work predominantly with intaglio with chine-colle, but am also interested in the variation of texture that could come from including other print processes, such as relief and screen printing. My goal at the end of the fellowship is to create a unified body of work that blurs the boundaries between printmaking and collaging.

Derek Smith

From the tangled web of Chicago open mics and showcases to middle-of-the country comedy clubs and dive bars emerges Derek Smith.

Derek Smith was a different kind of little kid. While everyone else was playing Power Rangers in the street, he was in his room letting Bill Cosby LPs flow into his ear to stew is in brain. A couple of decades later he’s probably more Bill Hicks than Cosby. And when all the comparisons inevitably fail to describe what he’s become, he stands as a different kind of animal entirely: one to be dissected, studied and thoroughly enjoyed.

Despite being a bag of vices and complaints, he remains likable and lovable, like a smart, irritated Teddy Bear who makes poor life decisions. He’s been described as disgusting and smart. He could probably write this generation’s definitive dick joke in his sleep. He probably will, but only in between being a hundred kinds of funny, intelligent, and captivating.

Services Offered:

• Printmaking Commissions

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Katherine Smith

As a Graphic Designer and painter, Katherine creates easel-size paintings of stylized landscapes that include references to microscopic biological forms and macroscopic extraterrestrial masses. She uses organic shapes, thick layers and bright colors that suggest planets and cellular structures to evoke the processes of many natural systems moving from their creation to decay. These pieces are juxtaposed to Letterpress prints that are personal statements that represent changing thoughts and emotions. Oil paints on canvas and oil based ink on paper show a variety of texture that symbolizes inconsistency, abnormal ideas and anxiety. This series is a timeline showing her discomfort within her environment over the period of one year.

Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities
• Graphic Design

Website:

Rebecca Gray Smith

Rebecca Gray Smith, born in 1953, is a Chicago based artist, printmaker, and instructor, who has practiced printmaking for over 30 years. Smith holds a MA in liberal arts from the University of Chicago, with undergraduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in printmaking, anatomy, drawing, and painting. Smith has taught courses in printmaking and fine art for the University of Chicago, the Chicago City Colleges, the Chicago Park District, and the Chicago parochial school system for children at risk. Smith’s artworks have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the USA, and Europe. Her work is in private collections in the USA, England, Netherlands, Belgium, India, China, and Japan.

Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities

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Jolanta Soares

Jolanta Soares, grew up in Communist Poland, coming of age during the Solidarity Movement, before emigrating to the United States. This background intermingles with her experiences as a mother, her love of sailing and working as an IT professional, to inspire her many different series of works. “Stories” describes her life’s journey, “Into the Cloud” conveys a rebellion against the digitization and vulnerability of our identities, “Poppies Fields” embodies the beauty and pathos inherent in poppies, and “Don’t Think” being the Joie de vivre. Reminiscent of De Kooning, Joan Mitchell and other Abstract Expressionist artists, Jolanta uses an Oil & Wax  and Encaustic techniques to create paintings.

Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities

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Junli Song

Fellow

As an aspiring artist and storyteller, I enjoy thinking about how to communicate with the page, both in terms of content and white space. I’m obsessed with screen printing, colour palettes, and beautiful paper, and I am most drawn to artwork that evokes emotion and feeling, with characters that have a strong sense of personality. As a lifelong bibliophile, I dream of creating beautiful books and telling stories through both words and images.

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Project Statement:

Furthermore, through screen printing I have developed a visual language with which to express myself, and I now feel ready to tell my own stories. Specifically, I want to continue exploring the page as a medium, playing with white space in composition and design, as well as working more with text as a visual object, both in terms of its shape on the page and by experimenting with letterpress and its graphic qualities.

David Soukup

David Soukup [born 1985] is known for his stunning hand-cut stencil paintings of the urban environment which lie at the boundary between photo-realism and graphic design.  Soukup catalogs city life, specifically the life in his hometown of Chicago, and the decaying and now forgotten alleys and fire escapes of a previous life.  His paintings reflect accumulated memories and experiences, with rich texture, abstract, and intentional elements and techniques.

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Dan Spielman

Zerobird Studio

Zerobird is a screen printing and design studio located in the historic Feather Loft building in Chicago’s West Town Industrial Corridor. Run by the husband and wife team of Jennifer Burak and Dan Spielman. We make extremely efficient use of the 18’ x 18’ space where we do all our designing, file prep, screen exposure, printing, sewing and packaging. All prints ( paper, tshirt and fabric ) are hand pulled using water based inks and soy based solvents. Our equipment is mostly handmade using salvaged materials – the tables were even built from torn down walls in our old studio. We also enjoy embracing traditional printing methods whenever possible, including Rubylithe transfers.

Dan is originally from Brookfield, IL. He started out college as a Fine Arts and Business major and wound up in the corporate world for many years before finding his way back to art.  An expert with Adobe Illustrator and  an xacto blade, he started back with Graphic Design and production work.  In 2012, he met Jennifer and quickly fell for the ( traditional, meticulous ) process of screen printing.  Dan relocated to Chicago and began working at a commercial t-shirt printing shop.  On the side he was designing and screen printing t-shirts and posters for his own band and soon had requests to create art for some of his favorite bands in the city. Everything from logos to album artwork. Dan is the Zerobird Studio resident t-shirt expert and guitar picker. When not creating art, he can be found playing bluegrass at the studio and all over the city.

Services Offered:

• Graphic Design
• Illustration
• Printmaking Commissions

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Meredith Stein

Meredith Stein, also known as MuddaGoose, is a visual artist, rapper and young creative from Chicago, IL. She recently graduated from New York University where she concentrated in Creative Marketing and minored in Studio Art. She is fascinated with cities, behavior and how culture is influence by urban environment. Her interests include branding, visual communication, digital marketing, product design, event-based marketing, merchandise, screen printing, and life-long learning.

Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities
• Graphic Design
• Illustration
• Printmaking Commissions

Website:

Patti Swanson

Patti Swanson is a historian, educator, and artist living in Chicago, Illinois. Raised near Austin, Texas, Patti came to Chicago in 2011 to pursue a degree in art history at School of the Art Institute of Chicago and stayed for the city’s rich history, friendly people, and balmy winters.

Patti is the creator, chief guide, and organizer of Chicago for Chicagoans, as well as a Senior Field Agent for Atlas Obscura. In addition to giving architectural and history tours, Patti is a multidisciplinary artist interested in the overlap between the city & the book arts. Her artwork focuses on community activism, memory, place, genealogy, and the accessibility of the arts.

Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities
• Printmaking Commissions

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Ali Tomek

Intern

Ali is a 24-year-old graphic designer pursuing her MFA at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She graduated from Northwestern University in 2016 with a degree in History and Integrated Marketing. Her work focuses on the interplay between text and image on the printed page. She writes, illustrates, and designs content, then prints and binds it into unique book forms.

Contact her at atomek1@saic.edu

Services Offered:

• Graphic Design

Website:

Melanie Trzaskus

Services Offered:

• Graphic Design

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Jordan Wesolek

“Our wonderful city of Chicago offers it’s own beauty aside from the great outdoors. I strive to bring nature to the city and to my fellow Chicagoans. By venturing to some of the most extreme outdoor destinations I am able to find the inspiration for my work, which manifests in the form of high contrast pieces composed of simple lines and dots framed in basic geometric shapes. Because of travel, my appreciation of the city  has grown exponentially and it helps me look at Chicago in a different light. I enjoy correlating the massive towers of Torres Del Paine to our city skyline, the winding hiking trails of El Chalten to the busy bike paths of Lakeshore Drive, and the lava flows of Iceland to the brake lights down Milwaukee Ave. I like to think my work inspires people to get out and to educate themselves of the beauty of our planet which, in turn, will allow them to develop their own correlations between the manmade world and the natural world.” – Jordan W

Services Offered:

• Graphic Design
• Illustration

Website:

Don Widmer

Don Widmer is a book and paper artist who uses hand papermaking, relief printing, and bookbinding (separately or in combination) to create unique works of art. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago’s Interdisciplinary Arts program, Don launched his paper arts business, Lion of Bali, which exhibits at numerous arts and craft fairs throughout the Midwest. Much of his work is inspired by travel and his background in ethnomusicology. Don primarily uses a technique called pulp painting to create his handmade paper artworks, particularly his images of urban architecture. He has had several residencies at Morgan Conservatory of Papermaking in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Don has recently set up his papermaking studio in Skokie, Illinois.

Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities
• Printmaking Commissions

Website:

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