Parita Shah

Parita is a world traveler and a mid-western baby. She is bothered neither by the searing sunshine of Tamil Nadu, nor the frigid winds of Chicago. Parita’s creative works are generated via art and craft practices such as drawing and bookbinding. Her media comfort zones include drawing, painting, photography, print, bookbinding, paper making, music and more.

Website:

www.paritamshah.com

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.

Residency Period:

Sep 2008–Nov 2008

Project Statement:

Dutes Miller and Stan Shellabarger’s first collaborative show occurred at Western Exhibitions in the Spring of 2007 and was reviewed in TimeOut Chicago and the Chicago Sun-Times. The Chicago-based couple has been creating collaborative works since they starting dating years ago, this work creates a distinct body of work separate from their individual studio practices. Miller’s personal work is often paintings or collages with themes of hardcore gay, hyper masculine, body-centric images, rather than focusing on partnerships and domestic. In his solo career, Shellabarger is best known for his performance work, which reflects on the universal actions of man, such as breathing and movement repeated to test the limits of his endurance.

Products by this Artist:

Sierra Shih

Fall 2019 Intern

Sierra Shih is a graphic and industrial designer based in Chicago and Seattle. She is currently studying Visual Communications and Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is interested in brand identities and combining digital and analog treatments in her graphic design work. In her industrial design practice, she focuses on functionality, efficiency, and problem-solving.

Image: Detail of TITANIC by Sierra Shih

 

 

Services Offered:

  • Graphic Design
  • Illustration

Website:

sierrashih.myportfolio.com/

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.

 

Website:

www.emilyshopp.com

Project Statement:

Over the past year as a keyholder at Spudnik, I have nurtured an interest in incorporating collage into my intaglio print practice. I am drawn to the dynamic interactions of displaced imagery and lines as well as the low-relief physical interaction of paper edges. I experiment with paper transparency, image layering and plate shaping. By cutting etched images out of copper plates, I turn plates into modular elements and repeatable motifs to create “print collages.” I also print single plates and cut out parts of these images to recombine them into a more traditional cut-and-paste collage. I have found that destroying a piece that I created using a labor-intensive print process has challenged my attachment to my work and redefined my understanding of object value. 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.

Veronica Siehl

Veronica Siehl is an artist and printmaker based in Chicago. Siehl received her MFA in printmaking from the University of Tennessee (2010) and her BA in Studio Art from Beloit College (2006). Siehl’s work has been shown in various cities including Chicago (IL), New Orleans (LA), Poznan (Poland), Olympia (WA), and Knoxville (TN). Her multidisciplinary studio practice includes printmaking, alternative photo processes, drawing, writing and installation.

Services Offered:

  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

www.veronicasiehl.com

Residency Period:

Jun 2013–Aug 2013

Classes by this Artist:

Bookbinding
Cyanotypes
Printmaking Survey: Monoprinting, Etching, Letterpress (Fall 2014)
Cyanotypes (SU2015)
Bookbinding (Fall 2015)
Bookbinding (May 2016)
DIY Greeting Cards: Letterpress Printing (Nov 2016)
DIY Greeting Cards: Letterpress Printing (Dec 2016)
DIY Greeting Cards: Letterpress Printing
DIY Greeting Cards: Letterpress Printing
DIY Greeting Cards: Letterpress Printing
The Botany of Blue: Cyanotypes after Anna Atkins
DIY Greeting Cards: Letterpress Printing (Dec 2017)
Letterpress Print Your Own Cards (Jan 2018)
Botany of Blue: Cyanotypes after Anna Atkins
DIY Letterpress Greeting Cards (January)
Letterpress: Movable Type + Polymer Plates (January)
Cyanotypes: The Botany of Blue (June)
Cyanotypes: The Botany Of Blue (August)
Artist Books: Sequence, Image, & Time
Letterpress Printing 101: Introduction to Letterpress

Products by this Artist:

sienna

Intern - Fall 2019

maker making, worker working

 

Website:

siennabroglie@gmail.com

Katherine N 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:

www.katherinensmith.com/

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.

Image: Detail of Jolanta Soares, Blind Justice, Printing Ink on Paper, 2019

Services Offered:

  • Exhibition Opportunities

Website:

jolantasoares.com/

Junli Song

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.

Website:

www.artsofsong.com

Project Statement:

Over the course of this fellowship, I would like to illustrate a myth I have written, which explains why we have night and day through a love story between the earth, sun, and moon. I have chosen this project because it is deeply connected with my artistic development. Over the course of my master’s, I have attempted to illustrate this twice: when I first began learning sequential image, and again when I started to learn screen printing. However, despite having worked extensively with it in the past, I have not yet succeeded in bringing it to life in the way that I envision. I want to revisit this body of work, and completely re-imagine it through screen print and/or lithography. 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.

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meg studer

siteations studio

Trained as a ‘researcher’ and a ‘maker,’ I aspire to craft environments, graphics, and applications that inform and invite engagement. As an illustrator, my passion is integrating big(ish)-data with visual narratives and geographic expression. A curious and creative designer, I move fluidly between places, pop-ups, prints, and full-stack web development. Ultimately, I love drawing out cultural connections and footprints across mediums. I welcome commissions and work well in a collaborative studio environment, creating intense, inquisitive, and impactful designs for wider audiences.

Services Offered:

  • Graphic Design
  • Illustration
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

www.siteations.com

Hope Wang

Hope Wang is a Chicago-based artist working in painting, print, photography, and weaving. In her work, she examines how the dissonance of representation of architecture and its illusion gesture toward displacement in the same way bodies wander through and occupy space. She received her BFA (2018) from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has shown in group exhibitions including Chicago Art Department, Gallery No One, Womanmade Gallery, Sullivan Galleries, and LVL3 Gallery.

Recent Shows:

Where We Meet is a group exhibition featuring Hope Wang, Sydnie Jimenez and Frederique Jean who will explore the expansion of craft and sculpture through themes of abstraction, representation and materiality. The show is meant to disrupt space to investigate what does it mean to enter space, or interacts with one another in spaces? How does art interact with culture and memory? How do we understand the spaces between these interactions? What happens when space and people meet? Can agency exist within art that centers marginalized narratives, their perception of the world, and themselves?

Friend is an interdisciplinary artist-run space that exists to provide affordable studio space and to remove barriers to accessing art programming. Where We Meet is their inaugural exhibition. The show will be up through September 22, 2019.

Images: Detail of face prostrate, temples kissing the baked facade by Hope Wang; Detail of a bloated sky flickers like the lazy fan by Hope Wang; Installation photograph of the exhibition

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Ignition Project Space’s window gallery features throwing a short glance in the sliver between the glass barred against the warm air, a series of hand-woven illusions by Hope Wang. She draws from imagery surrounding store fronts that have a provisional quality – whether from business turnover, rental transition, or construction. These weavings depict reflections of pedestrians and shuttered spaces, suggested through motifs like blue tape, brown paper, plastic sheets, and spray painted plywood that bar the viewer’s access to the realities that exist beyond the surface. Traversing the line between image and object, the works question an initial understanding of material and perception.

Image: throwing a short glance in the sliver between the glass barred against the warm air by Hope Wang

Services Offered:

  • Exhibition Opportunities
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

www.hopewang.com/

Christen Whitehouse

Maison Blanche

I am a stationery designer and illustrator with a focus on color, pattern and texture. I work mostly in the wedding world creating fine art wedding stationery for couples who are interested in non-traditional pieces that reflect their unique personalities. I also create custom illustrations and prefer to work in a loose whimsical style.

Services Offered:

  • Graphic Design
  • Illustration

Website:

www.maisonblanchelettering.com

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:

dwidmer.com

Classes by this Artist:

Papermaking

Products by this Artist:

Austin Winstead

Chimera Creative Co.

Austin Winstead and his wife Sarah run a small graphic design business in the Ukrainian Village called Chimera Creative Co. They take on a variety of work including branding, illustration, and print design.

Services Offered:

  • Graphic Design
  • Illustration

Website:

chimeracreative.co

Abigail M. Wood

Abigail M. is a Chicago-based graphic designer, writer, and printmaker. She holds a BFA in graphic design from Columbia College Chicago. She had a haiku published in Columbia Poetry Review no. 26. In 2018, AIGA Chicago awarded her the What’s Next Grant to fund her project Does Cement Make a Sound?; a mixed media print series which aims to highlight the reality of living with mental illness and disability. Regardless of medium, Abigail M.’s work exists to answer the constant and varied questions that typically arise somewhere between a memory and the conscious awareness of a feeling.

Services Offered:

  • Graphic Design
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

abigailm.com