Crystala Armagost was born in DuBois, Pennsylvania and attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh where she completed a BFA in 2003 with duel training in 2D (Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking) and 3D (Sculpture, Installation, and Site-Based) work. 

She challenges the boundaries of traditional print media through exploration with wax, iron-based inks, patinas, and debris and photographs collected from nature and urban spelunking.  The works that evolve from Armagost’s process range from limited edition screen prints, complex variable editions, and one-of-kind layered pieces. Her mixed media work uses a variety of print techniques and found object to merge 2D and 3D materials.

Armagost’s work has been shown in the Pittsburgh area for over 15 years.  Her work has also been exhibited throughout North America including Wilmington, New York, and Toronto.  She has worked at many positions within the Pittsburgh arts community including as an instructor at the Carnegie Museum of Art, and as an artist collaborator for exhibits at the Andy Warhol Museum.  She has been a member of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh since 2006.   

See more of Crystala's work here. 

Maggy Aston is a mixed-media artist who makes art about nature, science, and the decorative arts. She lives in rural Greene County, Pennsylvania, and spends her summers painting outdoors on Assateague Island, Virginia. She is a Professor of Art at PennWest University where she teaches drawing and printmaking. She also assists her husband with the running of two bookshops, one in Greensboro PA, and one on Chincoteague Island, VA, specializing in classical used and antiquarian books, vintage ephemera, original prints and fine art. She holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, and an MFA in Printmaking from WVU.

She has shown her work with the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, The International Print Center in NYC, the Monotype Guild of New England, The Maryland Federation of Art, Bradley International Print and Drawing Competitions, Site Gallery in Brooklyn, and the Print Center in Philadelphia.

Examples of her art work, garden projects, and photos of the bookshops can be found on her website at: www.maggyaston.com

Budding Chestnuts, 48" x 32" , Mixed media monoprint mounted on birch board (watercolor and collage on woodcut)

The New World, 48" x 32" , Mixed media monotype on birch mounted on birch board (watercolor, gum transfer, collage, on digital photo fragments)

Passenger Pigeon, 48" x 32" Gouache on digital print of mixed media monotype (watercolor, collage and gum transfer) mounted on birch board

My Monkey, 22" x 15" Engraving

Fiona Avocado (they/them) is a Pittsburgh based visual artist, educator, organizer, and writer. Fiona has been an active working artist since 2010, publishing comics and zines, creating illustrations, making prints, and assembling textile pieces using upcycled materials. Fiona received their BA in Arts and Humanities and Professional Writing from Michigan State University and their MFA in Printmaking from Ohio University. Currently Fiona is a member of Lavender Estero Print Studio, the co-President of the Pittsburgh Print Group, the founder/organizer of the Itty Bitty Print Exchange, and a Fulbright Awardee to Argentina for 2024.

See more of Fiona’s work here

Jo-Anne Bates has transformed the process by which she produces monotypes: incorporating shredded junk mail for texture; tearing and folding the print before running it through the press multiple times; introducing text –words, sayings and statements used by and about black people; and adding lines of colored ink to her two dimensional sculptural type prints. “Exploring methods of creating philosophical road maps by making connections with color, shape, text, and more recently, texture, continues to be an ongoing and necessary challenge for me in creating these new monotypes.”

MICHELLE L. BROWNE obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking and Painting from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Making large paintings with dyes on silk for many years, Michelle returned to printmaking, studying alternative methods of lithography in Villa Pignano, Tuscany Italy in 2005 with Master Printer Lisa Mackie under the auspices of Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, New York. Browne studied carborundum printing with master printer Susan Hover Oehme summer of 2008 at Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, New York. And she studied screen-printing on glass with Master Printer, Susan Taylor Glasgow at the Pittsburgh Glass Center summer of 2009.

In 2011 Michelle was a resident artist at the Guanlan Original Printmaking Base in Guanlan, China and has been a resident printmaker at Artists Image Resource located in Pittsburgh, and in December 2015 worked with master printer Javier Cabrera in Mexico City.  As a long time member of the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh, Michelle’s exposure to triennial Fiberart Internationals and to visiting fiber artists has inspired her to combine printmaking and fiber techniques. An ongoing collaboration with Leslie Golomb resulted in a series of silkscreened and pieced quilts that began life as block printed images of anonymous girls. From that series, Betsy in the Forest won second prize at Fiberart International 2010, and recently two quilts were exhibited in The Faces of Politics:In/Tolerance at the Fuller Craft Museum in Massachusetts. Michelle exhibits regularly in Pittsburgh galleries, and is preparing for a one-person show of her prints on fiber in the near future.

See more of Michelle's work here. 

Casey Connelly's evolving print series “Paris, Appalachia!” examines the farcically provincial conception of his community that he has constructed in his mind. It inhabits the space between embarrassment and pride, past and future. Using memories, overheard and de-contextualized snippets of conversation, family histories, found photographs, and other ephemera as source material, Casey presents highly-illustrated tableaux which, cumulatively, reconstruct the community of his past on the basis of his present understanding. These micro-narratives strike a balance between The Bizarre and The Familiar to present a recognizable portrait of a vestigial culture undergoing a prolonged period of stasis.  

See more of Casey’s work here

Ashley Cloud was born in Texas in 1987. She discovered her passion for drawing and painting at a young age and became focused on a career as an artist. She went on to study Painting and Printmaking at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and received her BFA in 2011. In the years following, she worked as a data analyst and although art was not the central focus of her life at this time, it was never far from her thoughts.

Precipitated by the birth of her son in 2016, Ashley has returned to painting and printmaking with a renewed sense of purpose and passion. She is currently embarking on a self-guided Artists Residency in Motherhood to improve her technique and build a new body of work.

See more of Ashley’s work here

Biography:

Doug Eberhardt is a printmaker, illustrator, and educator living in western Pennsylvania. Doug received his BFA in Printmaking from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2006 and his MFA from SUNY New Paltz in 2012. In 2013 Doug received a residency and printmaking fellowship from the Wassaic Project in Hudson Valley New York. The Wassaic Project features Doug's artwork in their annual summer exhibition. He has worked as an independent illustrator for organizations such as NPR and the Storm King Art Center. He teaches introduction to printmaking and screenprinting at his alma mater Edinboro University.

Artist Statement:

Doug's prints combine brutalist structures and fantastical animals with traditional landscapes and naturalistic illustrations. His landscape prints mimic paintings of the Hudson River School of the early 19th century. Screen-printed layers of monochromatic colors build believable atmospheric perspective. Warm and cool gradients create luminous space and depth. Monolithic geometric shapes invade these landscapes. The landscapes combine picturesque elements of romanticism with absurd science fiction. The cold man-made perfection of the structures creates a dichotomy against organic perfect of nature. Landscapes offer a place for thoughtful contemplation. These alien shapes further deepen the viewer's introspection. 

 Doug’s neon prints are a fictional exploration of the unknown possibilities of an afterlife. They portray an unfamiliar world filled with foreign animalia. Neon inks create an alien world where light and color disassociate with our reality. These biological studies mimic those of 19th-century naturalist illustrations, specifically those of John James Audubon. The narrative of this body of work asks if there are rules and hierarchies after death. 

See more of Doug’s work here

Meryl Engler is an artist using woodcut and collage to create layered prints that evoke intimate, magical human moments, and the hidden landscapes of the environment. Meryl grew up in Huntington Beach, California, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. She attended Syracuse University where she studied sculpture, printmaking, religious studies and history, while also competing on the women’s rowing team. Next, she went to graduate school at University of Nebraska-Lincoln for studio art with an emphasis in printmaking. This is where she developed her love of colorful woodcut prints, using layering, pattern and repetition. Meryl moved to Akron, Ohio in fall of 2019 as the Artist-in-residence at Rubber City Prints. The city’s landscape, people and history continue to inspire her. From watching the foliage and greenery take over the barren, urban landscape of Northeast Ohio to gathering with friends around a fire on a summer night, Meryl is always looking for the magical in the every day. In 2022 she started working at the Morgan Conservatory and learned Eastern and Western papermaking techniques, now incorporating papermaking into her print work. She has shown nationally and internationally, notably at Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh and 15 th Havana Biennial in Havana Cuba.

Chloe Firth is an artist and printmaker whose work recounts lifelong mental health struggles, with a focus on body dissatisfaction. Her work seeks to examine how social, political, and economic pressures reflect and affect ideologies of gender and the objectification of the female body. Investigations consider how familial and social environments, popular culture, and mental health foster detrimental beliefs toward food, eating, and our bodies. Her artistic practice functions as a vehicle for processing how we understand food, gender, and power dynamics in a culture that values beauty and thinness.

Born and raised in the Midwest, Chloe received her BFA in printmaking from Northern Illinois University. Upon graduating, she relocated to St. Louis, Missouri where she held a position as press assistant to Tom Huck at Evil Prints for several years. She is currently a printmaking MFA student at West Virginia University, primarily working in lithography and screen print.

Zach Fitchner is an artist and educator living and working in Charleston, West Virginia where he is currently Assistant Professor of Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking at West Virginia State University. His creative research involves prints, drawings, photography and installations and explores themes relating to personal and public identity. 

Born in Atlanta, Zach split his growing up between Sugar Hill, Georgia and Lakeland, Florida where he spent his time in airports and on planes, playing in creeks, and building forts in wooded areas surrounding the local housing developments. Zach’s work has been exhibited in over seventeen states and six countries, and his prints are included in various public and private collections in the United States, Egypt, Slovakia, and Australia.

M.F.A., University of Arizona (Studio Art, Printmaking)
B.F.A., University of North Florida (Printmaking, Drawing, Painting)

See more of Zach’s work here

Abigail is a painter, designer, and publications director, lover of poetry, aesthetics, and religion—forests, libraries, and dogs.

See more of Abigail’s work here

Bio:
Arron Foster received his Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking and Art Education from East Carolina University in Greenville, NC and his Masters of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking and Book Arts from the University of Georgia, Athens Georgia. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally. Arron currently resides in Kent, Ohio where he is an Assistant Professor, (NTT) In Print Media at Kent State University.

Statement:
As an artist, I am intrigued by the idea that the land is something that we can use to mark time against, and that through an intuitive approach to observing, studying and documenting specific locations we can be witness to change. Through my studio practice, I ask how our perception and experience of place is mediated by time, change and memory and how these elements play out and unfold across different scales as we attempt to make sense of change. By subsuming emergent trends and placing them alongside traditional tools and techniques, I provide myself the space to cross traditional boundaries and utilize new and different effects in my work. The multiple, in its many forms, echos our varying perception and memories of time and space while congruently creating new experiences and again transforming our memories across time.

See more of Arron’s work here.

Leslie A. Golomb obtained a B.F.A. with University Honors in printmaking from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1975 and a M.F.A. in printmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1978. As a student in 1972, she accepted an invitation to study at the renowned Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Faculty at the summer residency included Jacob Lawrence, Louise Nevelson, and Philip Pearlstein among others.

She served as founder and director of the American Jewish Museum/JCC Pittsburgh from 1996 – 2006. The museum was accepted as a member of the Council of the American Jewish Museums and received guidance from the National Foundation of Jewish Culture.

Prominent awards include recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, PA Council on the Arts, and PA Humanities Council. In 2011, Leslie was a prize -winner of the China Guanlan International Print Biennial where she successfully completed a six - week artist in residency.

Noted recent exhibitions include Prints Tokyo 2012, Invitation to Celebrate 80th Anniversary of Japan Association, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, New Prints/New Narratives: Summer 2013, International Print Center of New York, Honors 2014, 798 Art Zone, Beijing, China, International Print Triennial Krakow, Poland 2015, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art, Impact 9, International Print Conference, Contemporary Copperplate Photogravure, Akira Baba, Leslie Golomb, Taida Jasarevic, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China, 2015 Guanlan International Print Biennial, China Printmaking Museum, 2015 International Print Conference, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, The Faces of Politics: Intolerance, Fuller Craft Museum, 2016 Brockton, MA, LIGHT MATTER: Art at the Intersection of Photography and Printmaking, 1954-2017, Grunwald Gallery, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 2017 and 6th Guanlan International Print Biennial, China Printmaking Museum, Shenzhen, China, 2017.

See more of Leslie's work here. 

Tressa Jones is an artist and printmaker originally from Boston, MA, currently based in Pittsburgh, PA. She received her BS from the University of Massachusetts, completed Post- Baccalaureate studies in Printmaking at New Mexico Highlands University, and earned a MFA from the University of Montana. Her travels and creative research, which include residencies at Kunstnarhuset Messen in Ålvik, Norway, the Vermont Studio Center, and research on the landscape and Land Art of the American West, fuel her artistic investigations of time: and its manifestations in the body, landscape, and built environment.

See more of Tressa’s work here

I am a retired art educator in Ohio public schools of thirty years, and have exhibited extensively especially in the last ten years in twenty states, mostly in my main media of watermedia, pastel, and mixed-media, in shows that have a national and/or international screening. I have included a couple images of my watermedia pieces/collage that involve a lot of printmaking elements. I have exhibited my printmaking in a Juried Regional Show in Adrian, Michigan in 2021 in an exhibition entitled “Celestial Bodies”. I hold a BA/MA in Art Education and twelve watercolor signature-memberships. In my undergraduate years, I had my introduction to basic printmaking background from the late Walt Kornowski, a professor at Bethany College who was known for his experimental monoprinting-techniques. In graduate-school in my MA program, I elected to take a graduate-level printmaking course from the late Don Roberts, Master-Printer, which also included some intaglio and stone-lithography. I belong to several other Pittsburgh art groups, including Pittsburgh Watercolor Society, Pittsburgh Society of Artists, Pittsburgh Pastel Artists League, Cranberry Artists Network, McMurray Art League, West Hills Art League, and the North Hills Art Center, and exhibit extensively in the Pittsburgh and surrounding-areas.

Website: www.ginajudyfineart.com

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

This series of linocuts has been created in reaction to violence: gender-based and hate crimes against minorities. I use both compositional and figurative dramatizations to express emotions: the physical and emotional trauma, resilience and perseverance. I combine printmaking with quilting, stitchery, and mixed media as a means to draw and communicate. For instance, blood-red sewing machine tracks echo the look of the military tank tracks that invaded some cities at the onset of Martial Law in Poland. Stylistically, my works echo German expressionism and cave painting. My interest in the competition between positive and negative space has resulted in images that do not quickly disclose themselves, but require time to interpret them.

BIO

Kazmierczak is a printmaker, book artist, and graphic designer who emigrated from Poland in 1990. She is a fellow of the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art (1987/88). She earned a PhD in Educational Policy Studies, an M.F.A. in Graphic Design, and an M.A. in Art Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interest has been in the psychology of image-making. Kazmierczak taught art and design at a university level for nearly 20 years. For seven years, she was head of the Illustration Program at the University at Buffalo, NY.

Kazmierczak has specialized in art making as a means for healing, empowerment, and self-expression. She founded and managed an art program at a shelter for survivors of domestic and sexual violence in Illinois (2003-08) and organized traveling exhibitions of survivors’ art. Her prints and artist’s books are in public collections of the National Library in Warsaw, Poland; the Holocaust Museum at Majdanek, Poland; the Rare Book Collections in Europe and universities in the U.S. Kazmierczak is a Treasurer of Pittsburgh Society of Artists.

1. Patience
linocut on rice paper quilted on cotton, sheer, cheesecloth, silk, cardboard letters, thread
Size: 12.5 x 9.5 inches
2005

2. Moonlight Forest
linocut on rice paper, lace, sheer
Size: 11 x 11 inches
2005

3. Violence Begets Violence
collaged linocut on canvas, fiber, supersculpey, metal, feather
Size: 28 x 22 inches
2019

4. Prayer for Peace
collaged linocut on canvas, sheer, moriki paper, supersculpey
Size: 28 x 22 inches
2018

As a storyteller, Patricia Kennedy-Zafred creates thought provoking narratives using fabric, dyes, silkscreens, and ink to develop a visual dialogue with the viewer.  The interpretation of each piece is conceived through the lens of individual experiences, memories, or perspectives.  Her quilts marry a lifelong fascination with photography, history, and stitch, often reflecting faces of pride and dignity, sometimes under challenging circumstances.  The intent is that the technical and physical demand creating them is lost on the audience, as they focus entirely on the nuance or intrigue of the story, transported to another time or place.  Educated in journalism and photography, the making of art has been a prolonged exercise in trial and error, self-teaching and study.  The stories expressed, whether historical or personal, reflect upon our diverse American fabric, possibly reminding the viewer of someone or something they may have forgotten, compelling them to linger, just a moment longer.

Patricia Kennedy-Zafred has been telling stories through the medium of textiles and art quilts for over twenty years.  Her prize winning work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and has been published in books and magazines throughout her career, most recently Artistry in Fiber (Schiffer Publishing, 2017).

Kennedy-Zafred’s work has been accepted into such major juried exhibitions, as Quilt National, Visions, Fiberart International, Artist as Quiltmaker, Fantastic Fibers, Quilts=Art=Quilts, CraftForms, The New Collective, Fiber Options, New Legacies, National Fiber Directions, and SAQA juried exhibitions.  Her work has won top prizes at both International Quilt Festival and American Quilt Society competitions, and most recently received the Purchase Award from the State Museum of Pennsylvania for Art of the State 2016.

See more of Patty's work here. 

Lynda Kirby is a professional graphic artist and runs her own Beaver County-based design studio, Kirby Creative, founded in 2006. Services include print advertising, logo & identity, business collateral, presentation, social media/digital display, signage, package design, promotional items, etc. She is also a multi-disciplinary artist, working primarily in digital media art and printmaking.

Art affiliations include: West Hills Art League (Board Member - Website/Publicity), Cranberry Artists Network (Print Media Chair), Beaver Valley Artists, Pittsburgh Pastel Artists League, Pittsburgh Society of Artists, and The North Hills Art Center. Her work has been shown at many local and regional galleries and she has received several art awards in juried exhibitions.

The printmaking processes of monotype and intaglio have allowed me to represent a variety of themes and subjects that range from the personal and autobiographical to the symbolic and mythological. My prints echo my artistic process of drawing and painting.  I add layers of shape, color and pattern, and then manipulate, exaggerate, and animate marks. My prints are also about my personal process of remembrance: stepping back, taking stock, reminiscing, moving forward.

I have exhibited paintings in oil, acrylic and pastel and intaglio and monotype prints in numerous galleries in the Pittsburgh region as well as in statewide and national juried exhibitions.  Most recently my paintings were included in the 2014 Pittsburgh Biennial at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.  I am a member of and have exhibited with Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Print Group, Group A and Pittsburgh Society of Artists. I have also taught a variety of painting and drawing classes to adults at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and through other educational and community venues. I received a Master in Arts in Teaching (1976) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (1975), both from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. 
 

See more of Paula's work here. 

AK is a Michigan-born artist living in Wilkinsburg who has a dedicated daily drawing practice. They indulge in self portraiture as a way of coming to terms with body image in the context of chronic pain and disability, and love any opportunity to play with new, unexpected art materials. Pigeons as self portraiture are a way of exploring the many facets of self. Their current favorite mediums combine digital drawing, screenprinting, and site-based installation.

Ignacio Lopez was born and raised in Pittsburgh where he graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Studio Arts and Creative Writing.  He has been published in a variety of publications and has been exhibited at the Westmoreland Art Festival and the Hoyt Institute of Art.

See more of Ignacio's work here

As a printer, David approaches his work in the tradition of fine art collaborative print workshops of the 20th century. In hopes to preserve some analog techniques of the graphic arts, he also accepts the challenge to produce new and relevant ideas in the media of the printed multiple through artist collaborations.

In his own artwork, David uses various print processes to synthesize his relationship with the history and remnants of a post-industrial American landscape.

In 2018 David co-founded Channel Graphics, a fine art production print shop in Philadelphia that specializes in Silkscreen and Inkjet editions.

David holds a BFA from Tyler School of Art and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, David is thrilled to be actively engaged with the growing printmaking community in Western Pennsylvania.

See more of David’s work here

"Nineteen - Forty Two" 2020
Silkscreen on paper
20"x26"

"One of These Days II" 2020
Lithography and silkscreen on paper
11"x15"

"Dark Was The Night (I-70W)" 2018
Lithography, monotype, graphite, and oil crayon on paper with nails in a maple frame
Overall dimensions: 29.5”x22.5”x2”

Joseph Lupo received his BFA from Bradley University and his MFA from the University of Georgia. His work has been a part of over 80 different exhibitions at the International Print Center of New York, The Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the Indianapolis Art Center, and The Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta. Joseph’s work is included in various permanent collections including the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University, the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Texas Tech University, and the Spencer Museum of Art. Joseph served as the president of SGC International from 2008-10. He has received multiple awards and grants for his work as an academic including the “Honorary Member of the Council” award from SGCI (2014), “BIG XII Faculty Fellowship” (2013), “WVU Senate Research Grant” (2008 and 2009), “Excellence in Teaching” (2015), “Excellence in Service” (2014) and “Excellence in Research” (2013) awards from the WVU College of Creative Arts.

My artistic practice explores deconstructionist and postmodern theories of how we understand signifiers and language. In 2005 I began to deconstruct the comic book “The Invincible Iron Man”, volume 01, issue 178, published in 1982. Using comics gives me the opportunity to take apart and reorganize a cultural artifact that is familiar and considered complete. By manipulating aspects of the imagery, text, or story structure, I can challenge our assumptions about fixed narratives, binary definitions, and fixed meaning.

My latest series of prints evolved out of a previous project that alphabetized the same Iron Man comic book. The new work alphabetizes text inside certain word balloons to make absurdist statements that reference William Burroughs, the “cut up” literary technique, as well as DADAIST poetry.

See more of Joseph's work here. 

Maria Mangano is an artist who explores the intersection of nature, museums, and science to address issues of wildness, conservation, and humanness. Wildlife, especially the kind familiar to people living in cities, figures largely in her work. Birds, in particular, have always captured her interest because of the fractal-like depth of their physical complexity and their significance in human culture as symbols, augurs, and links to the spiritual world.

A native of Syracuse, NY, Mangano moved to Pittsburgh, PA to attend Carnegie Mellon University, where she earned her BFA in Printmaking/Drawing/Painting. She has exhibited in Pittsburgh at locations such as SPACE Gallery and Artists Image Resource, as well as regionally at the Chautauqua Institute in Western New York and Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati. In 2014 her work was included in Errol Fuller’s book The Passenger Pigeon, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon. Mangano maintains a studio in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Point Breeze.

See more of Maria's work here. 

I am an artist living and working in Pittsburgh, PA. I live with my husband Jordan, our son Lucas, our cat (The Professor of Chaos) and our dog (Sidney). I design and hand print all my work in my home studio. The fabric and prints I create are inspired by my love for design, text, color and texture. Another huge inspiration is my mother, who is a quilter. I use water-based inks for all of my work. I received my Bachelors degree from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and my MFA from West Virginia University. 

See more of Jennifer's work here. 

Maritza Mosquera is a visual artist, teaching-artist, poet, painter, printmaker and cook, who creates visual arts and spaces for dialogue. Her works are often presented as installation-diaries about relationships and ideas within herself and her communities. They reference personal and public desires such as the Earth’s healing from fracking, the story of skin, the end of oppression, sweet home recipes, and the power of voice.

Her Human Liberation Projects takes her as a Teaching-Artist working in schools and organizations activated by humans that are facing special challenges such as: war trauma, dementia, incarceration, poverty, sexual victimization, and regular life.

She writes poetry. This and her visual work have been presented locally in Pittsburgh, regionally and nationally, as well as in Ecuador, Ireland, Costa Rica, Mexico and Chile. Funded by the Multi-Cultural Arts Initiative of the Pittsburgh Foundation, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Americans for The Arts, the Buncher Foundation Heinz Endowment, The Pittsburgh Foundation and Arts Midwest, her work has traveled and explored places that she loves. Maritza is a longtime printmaker. She studied printmaking during her undergraduate years at the Maryland Institute College of Art, continued with Tamarind artist Rudy Puzzatti at Indiana University, and Robert Blackburn in NYC. She joined the Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia as an Intern and moved to be its primary Construction Technician and then first Director of Education until 1991. She has been honored to receive an award to represent American Printmaking in Japan and was one of the American guests printmaking artists during Cork, Ireland's European Art Capital 2005. She moved to Pittsburgh to work at The Andy Warhol Museum, starting its first silkscreen programs in its first printing studio THE WEEKEND FACTORY, where he also curated various performances and community programs during her days as the Assistant Director of Education for The Warhol. More recently, she consulted The Kennedy Centers’ REACH art making studios on their community education space and programming.

Mosquera was born in Quito, Ecuador SA and currently works in her studio in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania USA. She received an MFA from University of Pennsylvania and BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. She was a resident at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and is a founding member of the #notwhite collective and is a Madwoman in The Attic member.

Pictured: pastels and pencils on silkscreen 2024

Website: https://maritzamosquera.net/
IG: @art_mosquera

Jameson Frances Mulac is a printmaker currently based in Morgantown, WV. She recently graduated with her MFA in Printmaking (+University Teaching Certificate and Therapeutic Art Certificate) at West Virginia University. Through prints and artist's books, her work focuses on native plants and their role in human culture. She aspires for people to consider their personal relationship with plants and thus consider the broader environment.

Botanical Folktales, Var. 2, 4, 5, Intaglio, 8x10", 2022.

Brent Nakamoto is a Queer, Japanese-American, Buddhist artist, with a background in painting and drawing, printmaking, photography, and book arts. He received his BA in Art from UC Santa Barbara in 2012 and MFA in Visual Arts from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis in 2018. He currently lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA, where he teaches in the Carnegie Mellon University School of Art and is the Program and Marketing Coordinator for Brew House Association, where he manages the Distillery Emerging Artist Residency. He has also taught at Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media, and the Community College of Allegheny County. He has shown work nationally and internationally, including in California, Saint Louis, New York, Pittsburgh, and Kolkata, India. His work is included in the University of Maryland Art Gallery permanent collection.

Koan: Look at plain silk, hold uncarved wood, 2016. Monoprint, Letterpress, 11 x 15 in.

House of the Creative, (from the I Ching series of 16 unique prints), 2016. Monoprint, Woodblock, 11 x 15 in.

Heart Sutra Dream Drawing, 2021. Screenprint on Mulberry, 10 x 8 in.

B I O:

Looking at light and shadows in nature, cities, dreams and events, woodcut has become a logical place for me to explore. Always experimenting with rational/irrational and external/internal elements, color-reduction and monoprint/mixed-media notions are always at my disposal.

I am very grateful to have received undergraduate studies at the University of Northern Iowa, with the greats frje Echeverria and Shirley Haupt. After receiving a full-ride scholarship for graduate studies at Pratt Institute in NYC, I studied under Phoebe Hellman, Walter Rogalski, Richard Bove, among others, but was also influenced by what I witnessed in galleries, museums and libraries. I was lucky to land a job at MoMA, where I lurked in the halls, balconies, and workrooms, experiencing textures and nuances from an array of sources. From there I landed a job the National Gallery of Art in DC, where I drifted between both Wings, sketching and taking notes. Working in the Artist’s Books section at Yale University Gallery I had the pleasure of handling many loose prints and sketches by Picasso, Johns, Twombly and others.

I have also published 2 cyberfiction books: Talons (2020, ISBN 9798657062410), Rings of Glaridon (2017, ISBN 9781542800501)

I have worked at Yale University, University of Pittsburgh, Pratt Institute, Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Art and Getty Research Institute

Attended: Pratt Institute (MS-LIS, 1997), Pratt Institute (MFA-Painting, 1991), University of Northern Iowa (BFA-Painting, 1982), Waldorf College, East High Waterloo, Logan Jr. High, Lincoln Elementary and Helen Lemme Elementary in Iowa City.

Taught: Community College of Allegheny College, Pratt Institute, Waldorf College

Exhibited: Various Galleries (Manhattan and Brooklyn), Pratt Institute (MFA), NEA Regional Grant Show (DC), National Gallery of Art (staff show), Bat Studio (BFA), Waldorf College (Alumni)

Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Tom Norulak attended Carnegie Mellon University and received his BFA degree in 1971. After living in Philadelphia for about 5 years, he returned to Pittsburgh in late1977 and has made Southwestern Pennsylvania his home ever since. 

During the 1980’s Tom established a successful commercial screen printing business. He began his active career as an exhibiting artist printmaker during the early 1990’s. His work has been exhibited throughout the Pittsburgh area as well as in selected national shows at well respected galleries, museums, universities and art centers. He has taught printmaking at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts for over 25 years. He has also taught at Seton Hill University, Carnegie Mellon University Pre-College program, Carnegie Museum of Art and has been a guest instructor and lecturer at other schools and local art groups. 

 detritus: 

1. debris or discarded material 

2. fragments of rock that have been worn away 

3. organic debris formed by the decomposition of plants and animals

As a printmaker, my imagery of the last several years has been of natural and man-made objects which have been altered over the course of time by their interaction with the elements. The subject could be rocks and debris along a riverbank or a hiking trail, an uprooted tree trunk, driftwood, a truck tire, or an inner tube or dead fish washed up on the shores of Lake Erie. It could be abandoned machinery rusting in the woods or architectural vestiges of the past. 

I start by taking photographs of these phenomena, and use the following process to transform them into black and white etchings. Laser prints of the photo images are transferred onto a zinc plate with a solvent, and then etched in nitric acid. Using traditional printmaking techniques such as aquatint, open bites, scraping, and burnishing, the images acquire abstract or surreal qualities, bearing little resemblance to the original photos. 

See more of Thomas' work here. 

Stephanie Oplinger is a multi-disciplinary visual artist from western Pennsylvania, specializing in painting, printmaking, and sculptural works that explore themes and connections between narrative images, feminine power, and divine mysteries. Across various mediums, Oplinger crafts evocative images embodying the strength and resilience of femininity. Her printmaking work probes the societal expectations imposed on women, juxtaposed with the celebration of their inherent power. Stephanie works with monoprint, linocut relief, cyanotype, and surface pattern design.

Oplinger’s work has been shown at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, receiving an award in sculpture, at the Carnegie Museums and the August Wilson Center, receiving Visual Arts Runner Up Prize, and at Harlan Gallery, winning Best in Show. Her painting work is a part of the permanent Special Art Collection at Greater Latrobe SHS and is installed at the Westmoreland County Museum of American Art. She serves as a member of the exhibition committee for the Pittsburgh Print Group, as a member of the Gallery Committee at the Greensburg Art Center, and as a teaching resident artist through Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art.  In 2022, Oplinger received her BFA in Studio Arts from PennWest University at California (CalU).

Website: www.stephanieoplingerarts.com

IG: @stephanieoplinger_arts

Artworks pictured:

"We are Wild and Angry" - monotype & paper lithography

"Unraveled and Unapologetic" - monotype & paper lithography

"One’s Internal Mysteries” - cyanotype & botanical relief

Kristina Paabus is a cross-disciplinary artist with a focus in Reproducible Media.  Her work examines systems of logic that groups and individuals use to enforce perceptions of structure.  Tools such as language, architecture, and game theory, serve as guides to expose the anatomy of human comprehension.  Through a multifaceted approach, she creates images, environments, and situations that explore our relationships to organizational tactics.  These hybrid spatial conversations elaborate on the constructions that allow us to interact with and gain control over our surroundings.

Paabus (US/EE) was born and raised in Massachusetts, and is a first-generation American.  She studied fine arts and religious studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Art History Concentration at the Rhode Island School of Design. 

In 2009 she earned a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and later that same year, Paabus returned to Estonia on a Fulbright Fellowship in Installation Art.  

Paabus has exhibited work in Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Rosendale, Providence, Reykjavik, Miami, Berlin, and Tallinn.  Recent residencies include ACRE (WI), Ox-Bow (MI), Women’s Studio Workshop (NY), Lill Street (IL), Culture Factory Polymer (Estonia), Samband Íslenskra Myndlistarmanna (Iceland), and Zidul De Hardie-Artfest (Romania). 

Her work is on display in many private and public collections such as Fogg Art Museum, University of Dallas, Estonian Academy of Arts, Spudnik Press, Women’s Studio Workshop, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Iowa Museum, University of Iowa Print Archive, and Grant Wood Art Colony.
 
Prior to arriving in Oberlin, Paabus was an instructor and graduate coordinator in the Department of Printmedia at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a visiting assistant professor and Grant Wood Fellow in Printmaking at the University of Iowa. 

In 2014 Paabus joined the board of the Mid-America Print Council as the membership chair. 

See more of Kristina’s work here

My work uses the mediums of screenprinting, relief printing, bookmaking and sculpture to explore themes of alienation, both from one another and our desires. I convey these themes through two primary subjects, that of animals and buildings. I see animals as a way to convey unity through difference—as agents that, although they do not function like we do, have their own needs and desires with which we can never understand but hopefully respect. Buildings convey our commonality and differences with the non-human world as they are the way in which we construct our habitats, while also exemplifying the complexities of human society as it is now—not only do we rely on architecture for dwellings only, as most other species do, we also need buildings for our government, social convening, industry, etc. Most recently, I exhibited my senior thesis work, "Realized Utopias," as an undergraduate at Ohio University. The exhibit explored themes of animality, architecture, and desires/dreams through the lens of utopia. The exhibit featured three sculptural "books" that used cyanotype and CMYK screenprinting to create immersive peek-a-boo books, as well as a repeated screenprint that hung on the wall. I have now relocated to Pittsburgh and hope to take advantage of the city's vibrant arts—and specifically, printmaking—community in order to further explore printmaking mediums and my conceptual interests.

I am an interdisciplinary artist native to the East End of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, working predominantly in photography, painting, and printmaking. My work focuses on social, political, economic, technological, and environmental conditions in flux, and I am particularly interested in observing and commenting on the American experience in the 21st century. I consider my artist practice as both a philosophic exploration of the human condition and a vehicle for the advancement of progressive values.

See more of Aaron's work here. 

Ionna Reid, known as Gubby, is a talented young artist from Pittsburgh and is a current high school senior. Specializing in screenprinting, Ionna brings her bold and innovative designs to life despite limited access to studio resources. With only one hour each day in her school's print studio, she has demonstrated remarkable dedication to her craft.

Eager to expand her artistic reach, Ionna is actively seeking new opportunities to showcase her work and connect with the wider art community. Her passion and drive are evident in each piece, as she strives to make a mark in the world of printmaking.

Emily Taylor Rice is an artist and an educator with a BS and MA in Art Education. She holds an MFA in Print Media + Photography from Boston University College of Fine Arts. Her teaching experience includes art education both nationally and internationally.

Rice has exhibited her work at Commonwealth Gallery, 808 Gallery, 1 Silber Way Gallery, Rough Walls Gallery, VanDernoot Gallery, Roberts Gallery, Piano Craft Gallery, and the Griffin Museum of Photography at Lafayette City Center, Boston, MA; American International School of Kuwait; Indiana New Growth Arts Festival, Kipp Gallery, Indiana, PA; the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, DC; and internationally in Shanghai, China; Split, Croatia; and Kasterlee, Belgium. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Flemish Ministry of Culture in Belgium. Rice has curated and co-curated exhibitions in Boston, MA, and has juried art competitions including the YCIS Puxi Community Photography Competition in Shanghai, China. Her artist residencies include Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, CO, and the Frans Masereel Center in Kasterlee, Belgium. Rice has garnered a variety of awards and honors for her scholarship. She is a United States National Art Award Winner and a 2024 recipient of the Esther B. and Albert S. Khan Career Entry Award Fund. Rice serves on the College Art Association’s Board of Directors as an Emerging Professional and maintains a studio near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Website: emilyricestudio.com
Instagram: @emily.taylor.rice.studio

ARTIST STATEMENT

The complicated narratives and often serious realities surrounding mental health and substance use disorders are what lie at the heart of my work. I navigate and reflect on the emotional geography that surrounds these experiences through the personal lens of alcoholism. Through photographs, monotype prints, collage, and silkscreening on found textiles, I aim to emphasize the force and oppression of addiction while acknowledging the release that can be found through acceptance and the choice of recovery.

Through abstraction and symbolism, I create visual metaphors that illustrate emotional complexity, struggle, growth, and strength. The concepts of time and memory are incorporated into my work through repetition and pattern. Processes of embossing and printing leave their traces, similar to the way emotional upheavals leave scars that cannot be erased. Pigments collide with but also delicately caress surfaces, emulating feelings of both desperation and relief. I use printmaking as an artistic means of communication and as a form of activism. Addiction does not discriminate and I aim to provoke thoughtful responses, fostering empathy and understanding.

There is beauty in damage. Raw edges, breakage, and disruption in my pieces invite an examination of the painful aspects of addiction while rebuilding the works through collage allows for the creation of a new narrative. This interplay between deconstruction and reconstruction speaks to the space between dying and living. Harrowing and unsettling stories overflow with tenderness and joy. I highlight the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual transformations from addiction to recovery. By engaging with my own vulnerability, I aim to cultivate connection and shift perspectives. Often an uncomfortable subject, I strive to dismantle assumptions and break down barriers to initiate truthful and constructive dialogue. My work aims to act as a tool for positive social change by embracing the invisible differences surrounding mental health.

Sara Jean Ruiz is interested in the type of emotional intensity that is stereotypical of teenage girls, the bodily impact it has, and the idea of treating these experiences with a seriousness they are rarely afforded. Sara works with words, various printmaking techniques, textiles, gum, digital media, found objects, and that feeling you have when you are 14 in a dressing room with your mom and she says something about your legs. And you think about it for the whole ride home. And sometimes you still think about it now. Sara received her Masters of Fine Arts from The Ohio State University in 2023, with a specialization in printmaking. She now resides in Pittsburgh, PA where she works as an Early Childhood Educator and continues her art practice in her home studio. 

I am a digital designer and printmaker based in Pittsburgh. I have a BFA in graphic design/illustration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 2023. My printing methods range from screen printing to metal etching. I am inspired by the tradition of printmaking and its application for mass media. In my professional career I strive to maintain the physical qualities of design while implementing modern techniques of digital media.

Website: https://maxsensor.cargo.site/Info

Marc Snyder lives and works in Greensburg, PA with his wife Marti Haykin and their two daughters.  He received his Bachelors degree in studio art from the University of Virginia and his Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from Indiana University.  Following his MFA he spent nine years as a college professor, teaching a variety of studio courses and managing the gallery at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, GA.   Since leaving academia he has been active as a printmaker, with a special focus on collaborating with small press publishers.  He has exhibited his work widely over the past twenty-five  years, and has produced over 100 tiny books. 

You can find more of Marc's work here

Morgan Swartz is an artist and designer from Pittsburgh, PA. He graduated from Vassar College in Spring 2021 and studied abroad at Glasgow School of Art. His art focuses on the concepts of gender and the transgender experience, the body, urban life, and nature.

https://morganswartz.com/

I am a printmaker and teacher who has been passionate about the many different approaches to creating works on paper we call prints. My specialty is Intaglio Etching however I embrace several printmaking skills that I use and interchange at any time. For more than 3 decades I have been working with Solar Etching Plates creating images by exposing polymer plates to sun and then water generally working towards non-toxic approaches. More recently, the art of letterpress has captured my interest. I have long felt that letters and words belong in art in order to help to further engage the spectator. This new process has made a marked change in my work. And the challenge of balancing just the right amount of image with words is a feat in itself. All of my work involves process. The many steps it takes to get to a finished product, the print, is what keeps my interest and I generally deal with issues that are either personal or have historical value.

Currently represented at National and International Print Fairs by Annex Galleries of Santa Rosa, CA., Bromer Booksellers & Gallery, Boston, MA.

Website: www.jamitaback.com

Debra Zuzindlak Tobin is the Manager of Media, Events and Website for the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and she and her husband James are co-owners of Tobin Studios in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.

Debra's art includes photography, drawing and painting, fiber and glass art and sculpture. Vibrant color and dramatic shadows and light are a favorite focus.

Tobin Studios, est. in 2003, provides individual and group art lessons and private guitar lessons for children and adults of all ages and experience levels. Tobin Studios also provides commissioned art and photography services.

Debra received her degree in Visual Communications from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and has since continued her education at the Community College of Beaver County, the Manchester Craftsman’s Guild, Sweetwater Center for the Arts, and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

Visit her website here.

James Tobin’s media choices included photography, digital art, drawing, painting and printing. James work is strongly influenced by Impressionism and surrealism. He enjoys creating worlds he hopes people would like to visit.

Jim is an award winning artist who has shown his art in galleries throughout Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He has been a featured artist at the Oglebay Institute Stifel Fine Arts Center and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Art Crawl and Merrick Art Gallery. His artwork can also be found at Bottlebrush Gallery for the Arts in Harmony PA.

He is the Vice President of the Cranberry Artists Network and a member of Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Society of Artists, Pittsburgh Pastel Artists League, West Hills Art League, Beaver Valley Artists and North Hills Art Center.

In addition to his art, Jim is a professional musician and co-owner of Tobin Studios.

To see more of his work, visit his website here.

My artwork explores the American ideal of individualism from both a personal and contemporary feminist perspective. Points of reference are various essays and journals, from 19th Century American Renaissance writers, poets and artists to personal blogs that proliferate the internet. My main medium is photographic silkscreen printing, but my approach to printmaking is that of a painter. I rarely make editions of my prints, concentrating more on creating “unique” prints that involve many layers, sometimes up to 30 printed and reprinted layers of images, patterns and color. No two prints are ever alike. My practice is heavily reliant on the infinite ways color and form interact to create and redefine meaning.

My most recent body of work uses camouflage patterns as metaphor to explore cultural identity. Specifically, as an exploration of dualities in nature and in a person’s life. What we choose to hide and what we choose to reveal about ourselves. Within the shapes that make-up the camouflage design, I insert patterns and images culled from 19th Century engravings, botanical illustrations, vintage political magazines, and contemporary popular culture.

See more of Tresa's work here. 

The natural world is full of mysterious signs and symbols, both beautiful and frightening hinting at the knowable and the unknowable.  My inner world is fragile, ephemeral and constantly seeking to understand, interpret and find meaning in the messages of the universe.   My work has always been a dialogue between the natural world and my own inner world.  I seek out messages and interpret them through the transformative medium of printmaking.  The resulting images are the meeting place of that dialogue which at it’s best integrates those inner and outer worlds and finds a balance, if not wholeness, as a result. 

For the last twenty-five years I have been actively involved in printmaking and exhibiting my work in the Pittsburgh region and beyond.  I came to Pittsburgh with a BSE in art education from Northern Illinois University and graduate work at the University of Texas in Austin with a printmaking emphasis.  For the past several years I’ve had the privilege of serving as president of Pittsburgh Print Group and have been long time member of that organization.   I am also an exhibiting member of Group A.

I have taught collage and intaglio at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts as well as monitored and worked to maintain facilities for printmaking access members in the PCA print studio.  These experiences have allowed me to make creative connections with many printmakers in the region that has in turn energized and enriched my printmaking practice.   Participation in the printmaking community has also led to some great collaborations prompting experimentation with a variety of methods and materials including prints as part of paintings, prints on glass and on ceramics.  Most recently I have embarked on a challenging long-range collaborative project that explores the elements using the classic materials of paper and ink.   These collaborations have served to stretch my vision as an artist and push back my boundaries while exploiting the endless visual possibilities printmaking provides. 

My individual work is an exploration of themes and ideas that reflect a very inward gaze.   Collage and photo-transfer often serve as the starting points to the expression of both spiritual and emotional concerns and connections.   Captured images provoke and facilitate visual seeking and self-examination.  While drawing and painting are important aspects of what I do, printmaking remains the foundation of who I am and is the heart and soul of my artistic practice.