artistbios

Sarah Bell is an artoonist, living in Rogers Park/Edgewater. As a self-­‐taught artist, she has cultivated invaluable knowledge from a diversity of sources and people. The most liberating experience, in her mind, has been letting go of preconceptions of who is an "artist" and allowing the freedom to simply express her thoughts and observations through simple, ordinary methods.

Named for the storm that thwarted their entrance into the world, Blizzard Babies are Taylor Kelley on guitar and vocals, Meghann Fae Mossell on bass and vocals, Pamela Joy Buschbacher on electric ukelele and vocals, and Liz Albertson on drums. Inspired by girl groups and riot grrrl in equal measure, and loosely resembling the Frumpies, Blizzard Babies make songs about youthful exuberance, ancient Rome, street harassment, and their cashier jobs.

Nicole Boyett is a comics and fiber artist prone to screen printing, research and crazed collaboration. She is currently based in the Pacific Northwest and holds a degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Jacinta Bunnell is an artist, activist, educator and coloring book maker. JB has toured the U.S. and Canada with The Sparkle Kids Action Network, The Gadabout Film Fest, Neko Case, Dave End, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Julie Novak, and Michael Truckpile. JB is the author of three coloring books: Sometimes the Spoon Runs Away With Another Spoon, Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls Will Be...and Girls Are Not Chicks. JB is a co-­‐ founder of Hudson Valley B.R.A.W.L. (Broads’ Regional Arm Wrestling League), a fancily-­‐clad arm wrestling league for ladies.

Writer and creator Maria Burnham is a bisexual author currently living with her two Boston Terriers in Brooklyn, NY. She is also a hairstylist, a chef, a photographer, a traveler, a reader, a self-­‐proclaimed “hostess with the most-­‐est”, a bike rider, a nerd, a sister, and a friend. If you ever meet her in real life, she loves it when you say she is cuter than her comic persona (and for goodness' sake, DON'T ask her why her eyes are always squinting or closed-­‐that's just how she smiles).

Ali Cantarella is a comics illustrator and ballpoint pen enthusiast living in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. When she's not working on artwork, Ali enjoys creating food as colorful as it is tasty, biking around her beautiful city, and leaving half-­‐drank cups of tea on various surfaces around her apartment. She has a totally cutesy full length graphic novel, "The Hasty Pastry" debuting in print this fall, and can be found on the web at www.TheWetStain.com!

Robyn Chapman is the proprietor of Paper Rocket Minicomics. She is also a cartoonist and an educator. Her cartooning workshops have brought her to classrooms at the School of Visual Arts, the New School, Wellesley College, and the University of Iowa.

She spent five years at The Center for Cartoon Studies, initially as their first fellow and later as their program coordinator and a faculty member. During her time at CCS she earned her MFA, having previously earned her BFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She is currently an assistant editor at Graphic Universe, the graphic novel imprint of Lerner Publishing Group. She recently wrote a book called Drawing Comics Lab.

Danielle Chenette is an artist who lives and works in Chicago, IL. Heavily influenced

by Tao philosophy and Cosmology, Chenette’s work confronts the concepts of mortality, isolation, and humanity’s relationship to nature through simplistic comics and animations. She works primarily with pencil, brush, and ink.

Faith Choi was born in New Jersey in 1991 and is currently working towards a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Chicago.

Delivered from the hot arid Arizona desert, Morgan Claire (who more prominently responds to her pseudonym Carmilla Dirt) now lives and works in Chicago, Illinois as an artist, curator, sex worker, writer and stylist. Morgan has dedicated her life to exposing, exploring and enveloping herself in the absurd, the obscure and most especially in transgressive eroticism. In 2011 she graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BA in Visual and Critical Studies with an emphasis in Art History, defending her provocative thesis in the spring. Her studies have focused primarily on sexual submission, rape fantasies, fetishism and S&M in literature, art and culture; which have been enlightened by her life experiences. She asks questions of moral relativity and "true" feminisms. Morgan is also an illustrator, painter and makeup artist, fascinated with magical transformations. Drawing from her love of kitsch, rasquachismo, baroque and experiences in museum studies in in the UK and female history studies, Morgan curated and hosted her first art show, Hysteria!

Visualizing Female Anxiety and has hosted and coordinated the reoccurring events Drink n Draw, a Dr. Sketchy's inspired drunken figure drawing class and Musette, a female artist social. In addition to hosting events whenever possible, Morgan created the female artist collective and creative force Disorderly Conversion in 2013.

May Summer Farnsworth co-­‐founded Riot Grrrl Press and co-­‐edited the zine MARIKA with Erika Reinstein in the early 1990s. Recently, she published an article about the legacy of Riot Grrrl Press, “We ARE the Revolution” (co-­‐authored with Kevin Dunn in 2012) in Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. She currently teaches courses on Latin American feminist literature at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY.

Melissa Gira Grant is a writer and independent journalist. Her work has taken her from peep shows to street protests, and has appeared in Glamour, The Guardian, Reason, TheNation.com, Wired.com, and Jezebel, among others. She's a contributing editor to Jacobin, and the author of Playing the Whore (Verso Books, forthcoming 2013).

Clay Harris is an artist and teacher living in Silver Spring, Maryland. He takes care of his mom and teaches cartooning on weekends.

Gretchen Hasse wrote stories before she ever picked up a pencil to draw, and since then her work has been narrative, even when she doesn't necessarily intend it to be.

Her mind and creative work are populated with characters inspired by friends, students, relatives, and people she meets only briefly.

Delia Jean is a Chicago-­‐born cartoonist and storyteller. She is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the creator of the comics series Station in Life. Find out more at www.deliajean.com.

Lyra Hill is a filmmaker, comics artist, performer, and organizer living in Chicago. She is a member of Trubble Club, the collaborative comics collective, and the founder and organizer of Brain Frame, the performative comix reading series. Lyra is interested in the unconscious drives, questionable humor, and the avant-­‐garde.

Franny Howes is a PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Writing at Virginia Tech, and is the creator of the comic Oh Shit, I’m in Grad School! She has been publishing comics in print and on the web since 2008. Franny is currently working on her dissertation, tentatively titled From Inclusion to Transformation: Decolonial Feminist Comics Methodology (With Handy Illustrations).

Sarah Jaffe is an independent journalist covering labor, social and economic justice, and politics for The Atlantic, The Guardian, In These Times, Truthout, and many other publications. She is the co-­‐host of Belabored, a labor podcast hosted by Dissent magazine, and a frequent guest on other TV and radio programs. She lives in Brooklyn with a rescue dog and too many books.

Elliot Junkyard survived a childhood in the suburbs of New Jersey with the help of a steady diet of Muppets, Peanuts comics, and Saturday morning cartoons. He graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011 with, as his friends put it, "a degree in yarn." His ongoing project is The Adventures of Vampire Kitty and Space Bat, which combines a love of the absurd, pop culture references, and cats in space.

Sarabhi Kanga I am a writer and comic artist who loves Batman, grammar and the smell of paper. I completed a bachelors in engineering but rectified that mistake by deciding to study arts journalism at SAIC. I am from India and currently reside in Chicago. I love making comics and my favorite medium to work in is watercolor. I was always an avid debater and very interested in Model UN, so political discourse is a great interest of mine, as is science. I hope to one day combine writing and comics into a profession for myself.

Terri Kapsalis is the author of Jane Addams' Travel Medicine Kit, The Hysterical Alphabet, and Public Privates: Performing Gynecology from Both Ends of the Speculum.

She is a health educator at Chicago Women's Health Center, a founding member of Theater Oobleck, and the chair of Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Nia King is a queer mixed-­‐race art activist from Boston who is proud to call Oakland home. She is the creator of the zine Angry Black-­‐White Girl, the film The Craigslist Chronicles, and the podcast We Want the Airwaves: QPOC Artists on the Rise. You can learn more about her work at artactivistnia.com.

Abraham Lampert is an artist and comics creator in Chicago currently pursuing a BFA at the School of the Art Institute.

Việt Lê was born in Sài Gòn, Viẹt Nam in 1976. Lê received his M.F.A. from the University of California, Irvine, where he has also taught Studio Art and Visual Culture courses. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and a postdoctoral fellowship at Academia Sinica, Taipei. He is an Assistant Professor at the California College of the Arts in the Visual & Critical Studies Graduate Program and the Visual Studies Program. Lê’s artwork has been exhibited internationally at The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada; DoBaeBacSa Gallery, Seoul, Korea; Cape Museum of Fine Arts, MA, USA; H Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand;1a Space, Hong Kong; among other venues. In 2009, he was a Sovereign Asian Art Prize finalist. Lê has received fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Fulbright-­‐Hays, William Joiner Center, Fine Arts Work Center, Center for Khmer Studies, and PEN Center USA.

Jamie Davida Lee is a cartoonist, sculptural illustrator, and lady person from Poughkeepsie, New York. A student of the Art Institute of Chicago and Ladydrawer, she enjoys making tiny things, drawing, and smelling old books in the corner of her burrow. Miss Lee currently lives and studies in Chicago, Il.

Ever Mainard is a Chicago comic. Her joke "Here's Your Rape" went viral and has been featured on many esteemed websites including Jezebel.com. Ever is one of Chicago's Most Influential Women in Comedy (Gaper's Block) and one of Chicago's best acts to catch (Chicago Magazine, Chicago Redeye.) Ever is a cast member at Chicago Underground Comedy and co-­‐host of the Shit Show.

MariNaomi is the Los Angeles-­‐based creator of the graphic memoir Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22 (Harper Perennial) and the self-­‐published Estrus Comics (est. 1998). Visit her website at marinaomi.com.

Nicole Marroquin is an interdisciplinary artist and assistant professor of Art Education at SAIC.

Carolina Mayorga’s work addresses issues of social and political content. As a Colombian-­‐born and naturalized American citizen, she uses her insider/outsider view of American culture to reveal realities associated with her Latino background. She also uses her own image as a cultural stereotype, which often results in satirical performance art pieces, unsettling videos, and playful interactive installations. The artist lives and works in Washington, DC.

Katie McVay’s inability to be anything other than the tiny firecracker she is has resulted in a quick rise to the top of the Chicago stand-­‐up scene. After only about 18 months of leaving audiences gobsmacked with her unique brand of being extremely comfortable in her own discomfort, Katie was asked to join the elite stand-­‐up cast at Chicago Underground Comedy. Her advice web series “Yell You Better” quickly became a YouTube hit and garnered her fans all over this great nation. Sure, Katie has opened for big stars like Tom Papa, and sure, Katie has performed at comedy festivals, but that’s not what’s important. What’s important is the way that you see more of yourself in Katie’s admittedly damaged take on life than you’d care to admit.

David John Mitchell is a comics artist & scholar originally from Michigan, who received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2012. Mitchell has spoken on comics theory as an invited lecturer and panelist at San Diego International Comic Con, Wondercon San Francisco, the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, and other events. Mitchell lives in Chicago and is working on his debut graphic novel.

Anne Elizabeth Moore is a Fulbright scholar, a UN Press Fellow, the Truthout columnist behind Ladydrawers: Gender and Comics in the US, and the author of several award-­‐winning books including Cambodian Grrrl (Cantankerous Titles 2011) and Unmarketable (The New Press 2007). She founded the Ladydrawers Comics Collective after a decade in the comics industry and was recently called “one of the sharpest thinkers and cultural critics bouncing around the globe today” by Razorcake. She writes criticism for The New Inquiry, the Baffler, and Dissent and has two WHOLE cats.

An urban planner by training, Sarah Morton currently works full-­‐time for a non-­‐profit in Chicago. When not at work, she draws comics about beer, urban design, and existential angst. When she's not at work or drawing comics, she knits, plays soccer, and obsesses over photography.

Corinne Mucha is a Chicago-­‐based author, illustrator, and teaching artist. Her work includes the Xeric-­‐funded My Alaskan Summer, the Ignatz-­‐award winning The Monkey in the Basement and Other Delusions (Retrofit Comics, 2012), and the YA graphic novel Freshman: Tales of 9th Grade Obsessions, Revelations and Other Nonsense (Zest Books, 2011). See more of her work at http://maidenhousefly.com/

Yasmin Nair is a writer and academic in Uptown, Chicago. She is currently working on a book titled, Strange Love: Neoliberalism and Affect. This gallery project is based on a future anti-­‐memoir. Her work is archived at www.yasminnair.net.

Julie Novak is an actor and comedian who has been performing in and around the New York Tri-­‐State area for the last 15 years. She has served as co-­‐emcee of Hudson Valley Broads Regional Arm Wrestling League (HV BRAWL) for the past 4 years, studied comedy and improv at Second City in Chicago and is currently involved in Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in NYC. See more at julienovak.com.

Isabel Reidy is an SAIC dropout. Apart from comics and drawing, Isabel enjoys playing music and is in three whole bands named respectively Fight A Scary Dog, Speak Daggers, and Dixie Lou and the Realbads. 1-­‐800-­‐KRAVLOX is available for purchase at Quimby's.

Liz Rush identifies as a radical feminist, an immigrant, and a pedestrian. She is currently working on a collection of comic short stories and keeps a graphic diary about her experiences in Spain called Sim Hemingway. Rush is a self-­‐taught artist and amateur cartoonist. Her work focuses on women’s narratives and realities. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

Ali Scott is an artist who received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013. She lives and works in Chicago has a cat named Sassafras.

Illustrator Maggie Siegel-­‐Barele is a queer comics artist living in Brooklyn, NY. While she dabbles in many creative ventures (anything from art class with kids and dressing up for elaborate role-­‐playing games) she enjoys illustrating comics above all else.

Rachel Swanson is a non-­‐binary comics and fiber artist based in Chicago. The work they make deals with queer expression, fantasy/sci-­‐fi, educational materials, kink/porn, non-­‐binary genders, and zombies. They spend their non-­‐art time watching cartoons on Netflix and enjoying the company of cats.

Fran Syass is a multidisciplinary artist in Chicago. He is currently working on a documentary film and will be interviewing artists and participants in this exhibition as part of his film, which looks at gender, race, and class in cultural production.

Laura Szumowski is an illustrator and writer living in Chicago. She is the author of several nonfiction guidebooks, and is best known for her work concerning women's health such as Tip of the Iceberg: A Book About the Clitoris and Cycling: A Guide to Menstruation. See more of Laura's work at lauraszumowski.com.

Bonsovathary Uoeung is a 23 year-­‐old Cambodian. She enrolled in a course called Introduction to Comics and Publication for Women at Pannasastra University of Cambodia, which was taught by Sara Drake, an artist from Anne Elizabeth Moore’s project Independent Youth-­‐Driven Cultural Production (IYDCPC), and was encouraged to continue making her own comic series entitled Ginger the Kindergartener. Her comics are mostly based on real experiences and childhood memories of herself and her mother. However, her real vision is to introduce Cambodian life to the world through her comic art.

Esther Pearl Watson has an MFA from CalArts and is the author of the comic Unlovable for Bust Magazine and Frantagraphics Books. She also co-­‐authored a how-­‐to with her husband, Mark Todd, called What’cha Mean What’s a Zine? Watson’s illustrations have appeared in many newspapers and magazines including New York Times and Lucky Peach. Her paintings have been exhibited at The Santa Monica Museum of Art, the Oakland Museum of California, the L.A. Weekly Biennial and at Track 16. She teaches at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

Lauren Weinstein is a cartoonist whose books include Girl Stories and The Goddess of War, and her work has been published in Kramer’s Ergot, The Ganzfeld, An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, and The Best American Comics of 2007 and 2010. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, Glamour, and Heeb magazines. She is currently working on a sequel to Girl Stories.

Sarah Welch is a print and textile design artist and enjoys the desert. She lives in Texas, and has feelings about it.

Elizabeth White is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She holds a BA from Vassar College and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. Based in Brooklyn, she teaches at Bennington College in Vermont. Past projects can be seen at www.whitespaceprojects.com.

Mara Williams is an illustrator and zinester and a PhD student in Communication and Society at the University of Oregon. She’s studied post-­‐feminist and post-­‐racist logics in online fandom, open source online archives, and queer religious blogs. She likes to think about ways to combine critical analyses of gender and sexuality with silly animal drawings.

Polly Yates is an English artist now living in Chicago. She received her MFA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, London (UK), in 2011. Currently working mainly in collage, Yates will be working alongside fellow Chicago-­‐based artists Danielle Chenette, Elliot Junkyard and Sarah Bell on a large wall mural that explores ideas of sex and gender.

Caitlin Yates is a self-­‐proclaimed ‘illustroprintmaker’ and sequential artist. She grew up in Connecticut, and earned her BFA in Painting and a BA in Psychology at the University of Connecticut. Today, Caitlin is an activist by day and an artist by night, and her work examines topics such as feminism, organized religion, violence against women prevention, and herpetology.