Melanie Trzaskus
Services Offered:
- Graphic Design


Gwyneth is a depressed animist, descended from European invaders and immigrants, based in Chicago and Baltimore. She makes time for the animation, absurdity, patterns, and paradox of humans and not-humans, often focusing on sensations and systems that are invisible to us due to their immateriality, proximity, or assumed normalcy. She’s presented work in galleries, festivals, forests, and empty lots throughout the Northern Hemisphere, including with Roots & Culture, Roman Susan, Woman Made Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, and 6018 NORTH in Chicago; the Freies Museum in Berlin; and @ptt in Geneva. As an artist in residence, she’s gestated at the Experimental Sound Studio (Chicago), FRISE (Germany), Harold Arts (Ohio), Arteles Creative Center (Finland), and Utopiana (Switzerland). She teaches teenagers at the Lutz Center for After School Matters, and has taught in many other institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Ox-Bow School of Art and Artist Residency, and Johns Hopkins University’s Baltimore Youth Film Arts. She holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and received her certificate from the Center for Deep Listening in 2018. She thinks artist bios and CVs are deceptive in nature.

Perfectartpeace.com was inspired by a line in an old prayer book, The Key of Heaven, that says, “ holy rest is found in Thee who art our perfect peace.” As a lifelong Chicago resident the art work I create has been featured in non-profit events and churches for decades. We now live in an age where once sacred images have lost much of their power to grasp either heart or mind. Wings and angels are my favorite motif. Working in multiple media with found objects and repurposed materials I create art for the joy of it, and as a reminder that the sacred has a role in our everyday life. I am a resident artist at ClaySpace in Lisle, IL and a member of Spudnik Press in Chicago, IL. PEACE, Cheryl


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.

Amira is the Board President at Spudnik Press.
Amira is a multi-disciplinary artist working within artistic, publishing and scholarly practices: her artwork addresses the fragility of memory, and the inevitability of loss; while her research includes investigation of letterforms and how the way we write is related to the politics and ethics of love. She is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia College and at the University of Illinois Chicago, as well as a TERRA Foundation Research Fellow at the Design Museum of Chicago. In her free time Amira enjoys live music and good food around the city.
Email: boardofdirectors@spudnikpress.

Mary Clare Butler is an artist and designer from the south side of Chicago. Through process-driven offset and letterpress printing, her work investigates the relationship between modes of production and the environment. She received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago (2016) and her BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2009). In 2015, she co-founded Fata Morgana Press, an experimental studio in Bridgeport focused on the wiggly line between art and design.

Teresita Carson Valdéz is a Chicago based artist working in fiber, film, photography, print media and installation. She received her Bachelors in Fine Arts from the School of the Art institute of Chicago. Recent exhibition sites include Adds Donna Gallery and Mana Contemporary. Her awards and honors include winning first prize for her screenplays Poly Esther, Chucky’s Feast, 1st and 10, Shlomo’s Night Out, and Ratacholo. Her short films have been shown at festivals around the world and at curated film exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art of San Diego.

Maggie Griffiths is a Chicago-based graphic designer. She is part of the digital product design team at Morningstar, Inc.
Though she hails from Cleveland, Ohio, Maggie has also called Pennsylvania and Texas home. She is known for her devotion to The New York Times crossword puzzle and her love of power tools.
For freelance inquiries, collaborations, and/or fine conversation, email
hello@maggiegriffiths.com