“Printmaking in all of its forms is who I am, so while this is hard to say, the organization is ready for change in order to grow stronger and continue its journey”, says Lennard. “I founded Spudnik Press Cooperative with the aspiration of creating a cooperative space where printmakers can thrive. Together, with the support and dedication of the community, it has grown to become a dynamic organization built on a multi-faceted, welcoming, and resilient studio model. I look forward to staying connected.”

Spudnik Press Cooperative is unique in its dedication to printmaking and the cultural traditions surrounding print. Its studio houses professional facilities and rare equipment for a wide variety of traditional print processes and fine art publishing. The 4800 square-foot studio includes shared work space, private studios and mixed-use spaces for exhibitions, classes and community events.

“What Angee has achieved over the last fifteen years for Spudnik and the printmaking community in Chicago is truly extraordinary,” says a statement from the Board of Directors. “Her expertise as a printmaker has helped forge the organization’s reputation as a trusted resource for artists and collaborators in the printmaking space. She will be missed at Spudnik, and we look forward to witnessing her – and Spudnik’s – next amazing chapter.”

The organization began in 2007 as a live/work studio. Founder – Angee Lennard – created the community-integrated print shop to respond to the needs of printmakers and Chicagoans interested in the arts. Throughout its fifteen-year history, Spudnik Press has seen exponential growth. Programming began with a simple weekly drop-in Open Studio session and now includes a rich network of opportunities for anyone who wishes to be creative through Printmaking.

Between 2008 and 2011, the organization incorporated, received 501(c)3 status, moved to a dedicated studio space, acquired additional printing presses and hired a Studio Manager. Within four years, Spudnik Press Cooperative was able to offer access to professional letterpress, relief, intaglio, bookbinding, screen printing, and offset printing facilities. Programs expanded through new Open Studio sessions, a local residency program, youth field trips, and publishing prints in collaboration with artists and designers. Another studio expansion in 2013 allowed for the creation of an Exhibitions Program, a large-scale free festival, Printers Ball, and the inclusion of Risography into our printmaking resources.

As Spudnik approaches fifteen years of programming, it looks forward to bringing on new leadership at an important moment in its history. During this transition to find a new Executive Director, the organization will continue to minimize barriers to well-maintained, robust printmaking facilities while establishing a rich community of artists and art-consumers engaged in the vibrant landscape of fine art printmaking.

For media inquiries, email boardofdirectors@spudnikpress.org.

—end—

Link to a Letter from Angee Lennard

2020/21 Spudnik Fellow Osée Obaonrin

Osée Obaonrin is a multidisciplinary artist who has worked in poetry, fibers, and most recently print. Originally from the Republic of Benin, she grew up in the DC area and currently resides in Chicago. Obaonrin focuses on the documentation of grief, mourning, and the self. She attempts to reconcile with the losses that have opened her to grief, the pain that has come along with it, and perhaps find hope as a means of resistance. She was also a 2020/21 Spudnik Press Fellow, where she focused on screenprinting. 

Obaonrin was interviewed by Mariah Joyce as part of her summer 2021 internship with Spudnik Press Cooperative. Mariah is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and current MFA student in Printmedia at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Mariah has a background in journalism and philosophy, and her artistic work is a tool through which she processes personal questions of meaning, identity, and interpersonal connection.

Mariah Joyce (MJ): You were a guest a few months ago on “Inside the Edition,” the Chicago Printers Guild podcast, and talked about coming to print relatively recently. I’m curious how that happened. Has working in print changed how you express yourself at all, or is there anything that you’ve discovered about what you can say in that medium that you had to say differently in another one?

Osée Obaonrin (OO): I used to write more than anything else. That’s kind of the conversation I have now: I don’t really write anymore, but I still want to call myself a writer, still want to be attached to this idea of being a poet, and I think that’s my first love. When you define poetry, it’s very much trying to express yourself with as few words as possible. But oftentimes it doesn’t feel like it’s very literal even if the words are very literal because there’s kind of a gap. When we remove the traditional rules of structure and grammar, we relate to the words in a different way, the meanings feel abstracted, because we’re not used to pure minimalism as a form of clarity.

And since I’ve started making prints, I’ve never printed anything very figuratively. It’s still very abstract, and it’s still about creating that essence of the feeling through imagery, and so I think in that way it relates. But print gives me the physicality that writing gave me because I loved doing it by hand, but not in a full body sense, and that’s why I’ve enjoyed print. I also think there’s a nice visual quality to having a stencil on a screen or a burned screen and having that transfer, and it’s really quite satisfying to see ink on paper. 

Work-in-progress screenprint on fabric for HATCH survey group show

MJ: I feel the same way. Especially when it’s not a one-to-one where you’re painting with ink. It’s a transfer so it feels more like a process of discovery. Then you figure out what you just did. 

I noticed there is still language incorporated in some of your prints and visual art. Do you find yourself gravitating towards images and words to express different ideas, or do you think they’re different ways of expressing the same idea? 

OO: That’s actually an excellent question. Am I really saying the same thing over and over again, or am I trying to figure out different things? And I think, both? I’m trying to figure out the same thing, which is me. But there’s different aspects of me, and there’s different ways in which I’ve grown to exist, on my own but also through interacting with other people, so I have different questions about that. But at the end of the day, the core is just who I am and the question of exploring these different relationships.

MJ: And that process of self-discovery, did that start with the language and over time move into the visual stuff, or are they separate, doing different things?

OO: They’re not separate, they’re not doing different things. I think it did start with language. I was drawing and doodling all through childhood, but one of the first ways I understood myself and self-expression was through writing. Like this is very much my home. And then I was able to, through print work and also just visual work after that, shape what it is that I’m really trying to say about myself. It’s a little weird thinking about it now. Like maybe print is a little less freely expressive. There’s a lot of editing in the way that it works, and I try to remove as much editing as possible in the way that I print, but at the same time there is still planning that is involved in the process. That’s a new concept I’m kind of figuring out. 

MJ: I think that makes a lot of sense. In writing, especially in poetry as I understand it, there’s actually so much editing work in the background that you just never see, and so it’s interesting to think about printmaking as also a process of editing. It’s an interesting connection.

OO: And I think printmaking starts with the editing. With writing you could write all the words that you want and then afterwards you have to go in and reduce or add or expand, whereas with print work you’re editing through the whole process. You do have to edit out and choose a thing and go from there, and I think maybe in poetry and the written word your brain is doing that automatically. 

Test screenprint on paper for HATCH survey group show

MJ: And it’s interesting to also think about how pure medium, time, and material constraints go into that, because I think you’re right – if you were writing, obviously there’s still effort, but the amount that you lose by just spitballing a bunch of ideas versus burning every screen that you came up with an idea about is just so different. 

OO: Yeah, and so then in a way printmaking can also be more frustrating too, like, I failed and I wasted all the paper, and the inks, and the time.

MJ: In your artist statement, you talk about your work as a means of understanding yourself, and processing grief and loss. Do you think that it helps you understand those experiences or make peace with them, or is it not really about trying to do that, is it about maybe sitting with it?

OO: Yeah – I think there’s so much that you can never understand or finish. Like I think grief is something that never ends, so I think it’s a process of letting it happen, letting the feeling be felt and sitting in it, like you said. 

Obaonrin with test prints and studio experiments

MJ: Does that come to you naturally?

OO: It doesn’t sit with me naturally. I think that’s why art and writing and all of those are a safe haven for me, or have felt like it many a time.

MJ: That resonates with me. It’s probably not true for everybody, but I feel like it’s true for a lot of people who do creative things. I also noticed that you talked about how the more honest you are in your work, the more relatable it is to people. I’m curious, what about that relatability feels important to you?

OO: No one wants to feel like they’re alone ever – ever, period. We’re all trying to conform to be accepted, but also we’re all just learning social practices and cues, just like social norms. But also stepping into ourselves, and sometimes ourselves fit outside of that, so you have to navigate that space. I think that we all don’t want to feel alone. We want to feel like someone else is feeling what we’re going through because being alone on an island is not fun. And it also doesn’t make sense. If we’re all here and we’re all human and there are millions and millions of us, how does it make sense that I’m the only one feeling this way?

MJ: Are there any writers or artists that you remember giving you that feeling of, “oh, I’m not alone. This person is somehow vocalizing what I’m feeling?”

OO: When I was really young, as in elementary school, I remember Phyllis Wheatley always sticking out to me. She was a Black child who was enslaved and sold to a family who ‘experimented’ with the idea of teaching a Black child to read and write. Phyllis’s story always fascinated me, the first Black American poet with a published book of poetry. And honestly I can’t really tell you any of her poems at this point in my life. But I think it’s being able to see yourself, too. And I think I was really lucky in the sense that I was taught by a Black woman, I believe Mrs. Hudson, in elementary school. It was a Black woman teaching me about poetry and Black poets. At the same time I remember very vividly learning about Langston Hughes, and so I think it made sense to me that someone who was successful for the work that they did looked like me. And they were successful despite all of the things that said that they couldn’t be or wouldn’t be.

MJ: What do you think makes someone an artist?

OO: I think everyone is anything they want to be. I know a lot of people wouldn’t agree with me, but if you do something creatively at any point and you enjoy it, why not? You’re an artist, you produced something! All we’re doing is producing things. For some of us it gives us emotional satisfaction and release, for some people it’s financially how they want to exist in the world, and for some people it’s just a hobby. But if you’re doing something creative, why is there a barrier to say someone is an artist and someone isn’t?

MJ: Speaking of producing, what projects have you been working on recently? 

OO: I’ve been burning fabric for a new piece. I’m trying to see if I want burned fabric, or if I want to burn the fabric and print its silhouette.

Work-in-progress screenprint on fabric for HATCH survey group show

MJ: What is it that is calling to you about the burnt fabric?

OO: It’s hard to say, I think it’s very intuitive. One, I love fire, fire’s a very interesting object to look at. Also the fact that it exists and how we discovered it as humans, I think that’s really exciting. But I’m really looking at gaps more than anything else, because fire creates holes in objects. I think that’s probably the biggest thing: gaps between things and the idea of removal. A lot of my work has to do with my friendships and relationships, and there’s a parallel with this idea of removal and gaps and burning away. As we get older relationships change and shift, and I’m really thinking about that.

MJ: Yeah, it sounds like the space that absence makes, a little bit? 

OO: Yeah, very much so.

MJ: Are you making that piece for a particular show?

OO: Right now, I have the Chicago Artist Coalition HATCH Residency, so we have our ­­­survey group show coming in August–coming soon-

MJ: -a little too soon-

OO: -a little too soon, yeah, that’s how it feels. I’m making a new piece for that, and so I’m trying to figure out exactly what that piece is going to look like. 

MJ: Where else can we find you?

OO: You can see my work at the upcoming HATCH survey group show, I Sense Something Has Changed, which opens August 13 (opening reception 5-8 p.m.). I’m also excited to share that after promising to make an online print shop for about the last year, in August I’ll be having a print sale on my website! And you can find me on Instagram at @owe.sea. 

Plates can be made using an everyday laser printer, then reworked or added to with a variety of tools like ballpoint pens, crayons and markers. The plate is then carefully inks with oil-based ink and ran through a press.

In this workshop, students will learn both monoprinting techniques and how make an edition with polyester plates. Digital file preparation will be taught as it is necessary for working with photos. However these processes also lend themselves to hand drawn imagery, and the computer can be bypassed completely with the use of a photocopier.

By the end of the workshop, students will produce two images using a mix of techniques on 11” x 15” paper. First time printers as well as artists with photography and drawing experience are both well-suited for this workshop.

Plates can be made using an everyday laser printer, then reworked or added to with a variety of tools like ballpoint pens, crayons and markers. The plate is then carefully inks with oil-based ink and ran through a press.

In this workshop, students will learn both monoprinting techniques and how make an edition with polyester plates. Digital file preparation will be taught as it is necessary for working with photos. However these processes also lend themselves to hand drawn imagery, and the computer can be bypassed completely with the use of a photocopier.

By the end of the workshop, students will produce two images using a mix of techniques on 11” x 15” paper. First time printers as well as artists with photography and drawing experience are both well-suited for this workshop.

Plates can be made using an everyday laser printer, then reworked or added to with a variety of tools like ballpoint pens, crayons and markers. The plate is then carefully inks with oil-based ink and ran through a press.

In this workshop, students will learn both monoprinting techniques and how make an edition with polyester plates. Digital file preparation will be taught as it is necessary for working with photos. However these processes also lend themselves to hand drawn imagery, and the computer can be bypassed completely with the use of a photocopier.

By the end of the workshop, students will produce two images using a mix of techniques on 11” x 15” paper. First time printers as well as artists with photography and drawing experience are both well-suited for this workshop.

Plates can be made using an everyday laser printer, then reworked or added to with a variety of tools like ballpoint pens, crayons and markers. The plate is then carefully inks with oil-based ink and ran through a press.

In this workshop, students will learn both monoprinting techniques and how make an edition with polyester plates. Digital file preparation will be taught as it is necessary for working with photos. However these processes also lend themselves to hand drawn imagery, and the computer can be bypassed completely with the use of a photocopier.

By the end of the workshop, students will produce two images using a mix of techniques on 11” x 15” paper. First time printers as well as artists with photography and drawing experience are both well-suited for this workshop.

On Saturday, July 25, Spudnik Press will host an opening celebration with live printing, a toast to the artists, and the opportunity to purchase the commemorative banners as well as individual prints.

The exhibition runs through August 12th. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5pm, or by appointment.

Participating Organizations:

Benito Juarez Community Academy Artime Club, SAIC Art Therapy Department, ArtReach at Lillstreet, Chicago Printmakers Guild, National Veterans Art Museum / YouMedia, South Chicago Art Center, Southside Hub of Production, Whitney Young High School, and Yollocalli.

Participating Independent Artists:

Erin Maresko, Emily Nie, Marilyn Propp, Heather Anderson, Meela Paloma, Christine Bespalec-Davis, Julie Cowan, Gaila Mercado, Elise Forer, Hannah Ireland, Megan Klawitter, Alex Kostiw, Jennifer Rich, Rogelio Rosiles, Judith Mayer, Steve Vidal, Lissette Martinez, Leonor Gallardo Hevia, Katie Moncton, Mary Serbe, Luthando W. Mazibuko, Amara Leipzig, Susannah Hera, Margaret McGill, Erika Valenciana, Salome Chasnoff, Miguel Delgado, Jaime Lockard, Maggie Piwowarczyk, Gloria Talamante, Jessica Caponigro, Tabor Shiles, Gabe Hoare, Liz Born, Nadine Nakanishi, Angelika Piwowarczyk, Liz Walker, Caroline Walp, Nicolette Ross, Pete Rangel, Erika Vazzana, Tara Zanzig, and more.

Photos by Leo Selvaggio

$25 VIP Tickets / $5 General Admission / Basic Admission is Free

Printers Ball is an annual festival celebrating print and highlighting presses, publications, projects, designers and artists that utilize printing in unique ways. Featuring the best in contemporary print, artmaking, and the written word, Printers Ball brings together artists, community organizations, publishers, students, creative thinkers and lovers of the arts from Chicago and beyond to convene for conversations, community art projects, hands-on printmaking demonstrations, readings, music, and conviviality.

Printers Ball 2015: Push & Pull gives tribute to the labor, the process, and the struggle that is elemental to exchange. At times, we pull in our community. At times we push out our ideas, our visions, and our inclinations. The interactive and engaging programs that will take place throughout the day all respond to this central question of how communities “push and pull” physically, metaphorically, and politically.

Presenting Organizations:
Borderbend
Cultural ReProducers
CHIRP Radio
General Economy Exquisite Exchange
Filter
Firebelly Design 
Story Club Chicago
The Swell Series
Zine Fest

Programs Include:
The Steamroller Spectacular
The Printers Ball Marketplace
Book Drive for Open Books
Round Table Discussions
Printmaking workshops
Exhibitions
People’s Pamphlets
the all new Book Butcher
PLUS an outdoor screening of  Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists!

Event schedule & registration at printersball.org 

We’re scheduling six hours shifts with ample time for breaks to allow volunteers to enjoy the festivities as well. All volunteers will receively light snacks and a drink ticket. Want to volunteer with a buddy? Great, we’ll schedule you together!

Available shifts:
Shift A: 12:00pm – 6:00 pm
Shift B: 1:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Shift C: 5:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Please respond to Volunteer Coordinator, Caroline Walp, at printersballvolunteer@gmail.com no later than Friday June 12th with:

Questions? Email printersballvolunteer@gmail.com

Can’t help out day-of but still want to help?

Wonderful! We’ll have screenprinted posters in-house by Friday June 12th. We need all the help we can to distributing them around the city (especially in Wicker Park and Logan Square). Swing by the printshop next Friday or Saturday during Open Studio. If you hang out posters in 6+ locations, we’ll even let you keep one for yourself!

Thank you in advance for volunteering and helping to make this amazing event run smoothly. We couldn’t execute all this without help from dedicated supporters like you. We’re getting excited and this is going to be fun!

Spudnik Press is excited to welcome Bryce McCloud as their Festival Guest and Keynote Speaker. McCloud is the mastermind behind Nashville-based Isle of Printing. Part graphic designer, part printer, part public art generator, McCloud believes in “the positive power of creativity to make our world a more interesting place to live.” McCloud will kick off the day by unveiling the “Bryce Buck”, an all-new currency that can be earned through acts of kindness and of sharing and spent on a range of affirming goods. For the keynote session, at 7pm, he will discuss his community-focused art projects, including his most recent project, Our Town, a city-wide collaborative self-portraiture project.

With eighteen unique programs taking place outdoors and throughout the Hubbard Street Lofts building, guests can anticipate a field day of hands-on experiences with printmaking, writing, and live lit, as well as partake in roundtable conversations with artists and peers. One highly anticipated program– the Steamroller Spectacular, featuring contributions from 300 local artists– will transform the parking lot into an oversize printing press and use a construction steamroller to create banner-sized collaborative prints. The Book Butcher is a deli-themed book shop, where visitors can order different “cuts” of magazines and books, contributed from revered publishers, big and small, across the nation.

Plus, Printers Ball 2015 will feature the first-ever Book Drive benefiting Open Books. Lightly used and affectionately discarded books can be contributing to a one-of-a-kind book repository created by artist Linsey Burrett.

This year, there are new and exciting ways to participate in Printers Ball 2015: Push & Pull. As always, Basic Admission is free for all! A VIP ticket ($25) includes a limited edition tote bag and poster, guaranteed entry to the keynote presentation, one free drink ticket, and five free books at our deli-themed “Book Butcher” shop. With a General Admission ticket ($5), you support Printers Ball 2015 and receive guaranteed entry to the Keynote presentation. All donations support Printers Ball and Spudnik Press!

The full event schedule is now available online at printersball.org.

Follow @printersballCHI and @spudnikpress on Instagram and Twitter and search #pushandpull #printersball to receive Printers Ball updates.

Printers Ball 2015 is presented by Spudnik Press Cooperative, in partnership with Two Brothers Coffee Roasters, Rose Paving Company and CHIRP Radio. Made possible by the Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine.

 Download the Printers Ball 2015: Push & Pull Press Release

Printers Ball 2015 programs blur the lines of presenter and audience, performance and participation, printmaking and authoring, artist and subject. Highlights include:

The Steamroller Spectacular will kick-off the festival. 300 woodblocks, each hand-carved by artists, students of all ages, and creative thinkers throughout Chicago, will be printed outdoors using a construction steamroller to create banner-sized collaborative prints.

Festival guest, Bryce McCloud (@isleofprinting) presents his public art projects through both an interactive project and a keynote session at 7pm, June 27, 2015. For the 2015 Printers Ball, Bryce McCloud will unveil the Bryce Buck, an all-new currency that will be printed onsite at Spudnik Press Cooperative.  Rousing the perceived value of currency, Bryce Bucks can be earned through acts of kindness and of sharing and spent on a range of affirming goods. For the keynote session, Nashville-based artist, McCloud will discuss his community-focused art projects, including his most recent project, Our Town. Our Town perfectly exemplifies the “push & pull” of art, community, democracy and the individual. The project facilitates self-portraiture sessions throughout Nashville that are then collected and turned into prints. In exchange for completing a self-portrait, each person receives a print of another’s self-portrait, creating new connections between otherwise strangers.

The full Printers Ball 2015 event schedule will be released June 1. Follow @printersball and @spudnikpress on Instagram and Twitter and search #pushandpull #printersball to receive Printers Ball updates.

View the Printers Ball 2015 Press Release