Jennifer Ackerman

PostScript Paper is a Chicago-based stationery boutique specializing in letterpress wedding suites. We started PostScript Paper with the goal of creating an intimate experience when it comes to announcing one of the most important events in your life — we know your special day should be as special and unique as you are!

Services Offered:

  • Graphic Design
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

www.postscriptpaper.com/

Reevah Agarwaal

Summer 2019 Intern

Reevah Agarwaal is a printmaker and fiber artist from India currently pursuing her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In her work she likes to explore her relationship with her subconscious using different narrative techniques and materials.

Image: Detail of Wet Paint Do Not Touch Embroidery and Found Objects on Muslin (1 of 5) by Reevah Agarwaal, 2018.

Services Offered:

  • Exhibition Opportunities
  • Illustration
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

instagram.com/reev.art

Vidisha Aggarwal

Fellow

Vidisha Aggarwal is an interdisciplinary artist and curator based in Chicago. She received a Bachelors of Fine Art degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago(SAIC) in 2018. She has exhibited work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Sullivan Galleries, and SITE Galleries. She has organized exhibitions at SAIC, SITE Galleries, the Design Museum of Chicago, Gallery no one, and Hairpin Art Center, while gaining exhibition making experience at the Graham Foundation, EXPO Chicago, Chicago Manual Style, and the Design Museum of Chicago.

Services Offered:

  • Exhibition Opportunities
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

vidishaaggarwal.com

Project Statement:

I would like to use my time at the Spudnik Press Cooperative to reflect upon and bring to fruition the many ideas that I experimented with throughout my school career to create a polished body of works that I can eloquently talk about, exhibit and share with the world.

My practice thus far has included creating experiential, interactive installations at a human scale that transform and manipulate the space around them through participation and interaction. An exploration that started with the intention to challenge the traditional roles of artists and viewers has now transcended into exploring more nuanced and personal topics of belonging, authorship, and agency that we as occupants have within the spaces that surround us. While I was previously drawn to the simplicity that my dyed and printed fabric constructions processed within the myriad of colors, textures and opacities employed, they lack a more concise language of mark making and representational content that could drive the work further. I would like to use silkscreen printing, as an extension of the drawing process, to translate images onto the fabrics that I have previously dyed and heat-pressed to combine the drawing, painting, and printing skills I have learned over the years with the surface that I have come to enjoy the most.

Haley Anne Amicon

My artwork is the result of how I best communicate with others and myself. Thoughts and feelings are free-flowing and forming; they cannot be contained or organized, they are hard to control because their nature is transitory. One minute they are present and concrete, and then they pass. I aim to abstract reality, process it, and return it to something tangible.

Services Offered:

  • Exhibition Opportunities
  • Graphic Design
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

www.haleyanneamicon.com

Heather K. Anderson

Littlehahas, HKAnders, ThisNewForest

As, Lookingglass Theatre’s first graphic designer, Heather worked on promotions from concept to finish and became a design resource for the company. Currently she runs her own studio This New Forest, works on illustrations through Little Hahas (commissioned illustrations, cards and wrapping papers) and produces art, HKAnders.com. Her personal work focuses the fleeting reality of life and explores natural elements . She is on the working board at the Chicago Design Museum, where she actively volunteers as an Event Director. She also prints, makes and creates at Spudnik Press.

Services Offered:

  • Exhibition Opportunities
  • Graphic Design
  • Illustration
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

littlehahas.com/ thisnewforest.com/

Classes by this Artist:

Pocket Movies: Make Your Own Flipbooks
Screenprinting for Tree Huggers

Products by this Artist:

Atlan Arceo-Witzl

Past Fellow

Atlan Arceo-Witzl is a Mexican-American visual artist and creator whose work is concerned with everyday rituals, icons, symbols, objects, and language. In his artistic practice, the cultural production of print ephemera, craft of the sign-painting industry, redefining “American” through a Latinx lens, and documenting/ recording of events across multiple mediums/ languages are current points of focus.  He is a graduate of Skidmore College with a Bachelors of Science in Studio Art with a concentration in relief printmaking and sculpture. He lives in Chicagoland, IL pursuing a career in the arts and education while enjoying the fascinating human game of communication.

For more, please check out Atlan’s member interview!

Services Offered:

  • Exhibition Opportunities
  • Graphic Design
  • Illustration
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

www.atlanaw.com/about

Project Statement:

While studying printmaking in my undergraduate program at Skidmore College, I found an interest in ritualistic repetition of form, communication through symbols, and collaboration between mediums. My heritage has played an important role in influencing the imagery of my work, drawing from Mesoamerican culture through to kitschy American print ephemera. There is a peculiar duality between things concrete and disposable, ancient and contemporary. The visual effect of a print changes depending on its context and the way it is utilized. Some display words and images to advertise or bring attention to an idea. Some adorn a blank space, adding richness to the foundation layer. Others are the couriers, the mortar between human communications. At Spudnik, I am interested in producing a cohesive body of work. I hope to experiment with printing on various substrates and combining different printing processes including letterpress, screen printing, woodcut relief, and risograph. Through this series, I seek to further explore the dynamic possibilities in communicating through symbols.

Lisa Armstrong

Lisa Armstrong is a multi-disciplinary designer, artist, and educator currently teaching at Loyola University Chicago in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. She holds an MFA in Graphic Design with a concentration in Motion Graphics from California Institute of the Arts and a BFA in Graphic Design from DePaul University. Lisa has also received certificates in Design and Time and Poster Design from the Basel School of Design in Switzerland and is part of an electronic music collective called Chandeliers.

Services Offered:

  • Exhibition Opportunities
  • Graphic Design
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

www.lisaglennarmstrong.com/

Project Statement:

In my work, I explore themes of metaphysics, healing, and vulnerability. As a motion and graphic designer, I often employ the use of typography combined with abstraction and illustrated forms. My thesis work in graduate school involved a series of projects centered around empathy, a subject I plan to continue to investigate through my fellowship at Spudnik Press Cooperative.

Products by this Artist:

Julia Arredondo

Freak Momma Boss Chica

Julia Arredondo is an artist entrepreneur who recently concluded her MFA at Columbia College Chicago. Originally from Corpus Christi, TX; Julia is heavily influenced by the small, family-based businesses she grew up around. Formally trained in printmaking and specializing in artistic forms of independent publishing, Julia founded Vice Versa Press and Curandera Press as her entrepreneurial debuts. Julia is currently launching an independent media channel, QTVC Live!, which focuses on live arts sales by underrepresented makers.

Services Offered:

  • Exhibition Opportunities
  • Graphic Design
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

www.juliaarredondo.com/

Residency Period:

Sep 2015–Dec 2015

Project Statement:

Self-empowerment is a main focus of my work, specifically in the realm of publications and zines. Aspiring to be more like cartoon characters who suffer trauma but never seem to carry emotional baggage, I believe in the power of constructing positive present and future actions by taking sometimes traumatic past experiences and letting those memories work for me. I seek to empower myself and others in a way that let’s us confront oppressive experiences and turn them into badges of strength, humor, and grace.

“Hate it or love it the underdog’s on top. And I’m gonna shine homie until my heart stop.” - 50 Cent and The Game

Classes by this Artist:

Student Debt Suicide Letters
Art Hustle: DIY Marketing & Communications for Artists

Products by this Artist:

A.J. Barks

A.J. Barks is the founder of Hippocamp Studio.

Hippocamp Studio produces original designs for print and includes the feminist print project Hippocamp Cards.

Hippocamp Cards was created to provide more authentic, more generous, less normative ways of sharing our lives with one another – of celebrating, supporting, and challenging each other. Established in 2012, it is an ongoing experiment in openness by means of ink on paper.

Hippocamp Studio is a larger effort to build collaborations with fellow designers and artists. It is also a place for freelance projects with friends and like-minded organizations and business.

Services Offered:

  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

www.hippocampstudio.com/

Lea Basile-Lazarus

Lea Basile Lazarus received her BA in Art Education from The College of New Jersey and her MFA, with a concentration in Printmaking, from the School if the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been teaching art for 20 year, currently at Beacon Academy, a Montessori High School in Evanston. Lea is a working artist making contemporary prints, paper pulp collages, and sculptures. She exhibits her work in the Chicagoland Area. Over the past couple of years, Lea has had one person shows at the Center of Halsted, Chicago, Lill Street Art Center, Chicago, and Curt’s Café in Evanston. Lea happily owns and operates a Conrad Printing Press.

Services Offered:

  • Exhibition Opportunities
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

www.leablazarus.com/

Marc Benja

2019-20 Fellow

Chicago based ? artist. Interested in collaboration or commissions in painting, photography, quilt making/sewing, and printmaking.

Benja received his Bachelors of Arts from Columbia College Chicago with a focus in painting, printmaking, and photography. His experience with printmaking is especially focused on intaglio processes, such as drypoint and photo-sensitive printing plates, monotypes, relief printing, chine collé, and gel plate printing, using various inks and paints. After a substantial, successful corporate career, Benja is entering the Fellowship to pursue his lifelong passion for the arts.

Image: Feel Field, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

 

Services Offered:

  • Exhibition Opportunities
  • Graphic Design
  • Illustration
  • Printmaking Commissions

Website:

www.marcbenja.com