Benjamin Shapiro

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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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

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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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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

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sienna

Intern - Fall 2019

Hello Spudnik Press!

I am excited to learn from the wealth of knowledge living and working inside this studio.

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Blake Simone

I create illustrations/ visual stories that uplift and empower the feminine.

Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities
• Graphic Design
• Illustration
• Printmaking Commissions

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

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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.

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

Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities

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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.

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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.

Follow David on Instagram @soukupvisual

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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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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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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.

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Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities
• Printmaking Commissions

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Marty Warfel

Services Offered:

• Exhibition Opportunities
• Graphic Design
• Illustration
• Printmaking Commissions

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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

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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

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Tom Wilder

Tom Wilder is a realtor. He was the  treasurer of the Spudnik Press Board of Directors from 2009-2017.

Fun fact: Tom has a daughter and son, his son is in a band (Monarchy over Monday) and Tom makes their t-shirts.

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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

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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

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Tara Zanzig

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