instagram: @elkeworks.art

My career began at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where I worked in a professional print studio, The Rutgers Center for Innovative Printmaking. There I collaborated with New York City artists in the creation of lithography editions. At the same time, I was an intern at the infamous Franklin Furnace, an avant-garde art space in Tribeca. During those years it housed the country’s largest collection of artist’s books, which I helped organize. These two formative influences have left me with a deep love for technical craftsmanship and the daring of non-conventional, contemporary artworks. After moving to Chicago, I became a teaching assistant at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I taught printmaking at Lill Street Art Center and The Hyde Park Art Center (both in Chicago).

website: coldboypress.com/zines

instagram: @Gingerrbridge

Bridget Bilbo (they/them) makes comics, is a freelance Illustrator, and occasional tattoo artist based in Chicago. They Started self publishing zines under the name Cold Boy Press and collaborate with other artists on D&D comics!

website: crosshairchicago.com

instagram: @crosshairchicago

Since 1995, Dan MacAdam has operated under the name Crosshair as mainstay of Chicago's world-renowned community of printmakers and poster artists. In addition to hundreds of poster and album cover art commissions for musical artists ranging from the celebrated to the obscure, Crosshair produces Dan’s own screenprinted fine art editions. Music posters and art prints alike draw upon original photography and unique approach to the silkscreen process in order to produce Crosshair's distinctively detailed, immersive prints, which dismiss the graphic legacy of the psychedelic era in favor of a dreamlike realism.

website: elephantroomgallery.com/crush-entity

instagram: @crush_entity

I was born in Evanston IL in 1979. My family moved to the bay area in California in 1985. That first year was a series of adjustments with-in the larger overall adjustment of moving across the country considering we moved 3 times and I spent the first year or so across 3 different schools eventually landing at Neil Armstrong elementary. From a young age I was never a follower and this coupled with the collar of perpetual new kid, I gravitated toward the weirdos, the marginalized and the outcasts. The 2nd grade civil war historian who spoke with a lisp and stuttered? That was Tyler Tucker. The cool kids called him other things as could probably be guessed. There was Jeff the Jinx who smelled bad and was just unco-ordinated enough at kickball to earn that nickname. At this point you might wonder why the fuck is this dude telling us this and what does it have to do with printmaking, art or publishing? Glad you asked. Just like the pieces of art we create or the stories we publish are an amalgamation of us and our personal experiences, ourselves and our personal experiences are an amalgamation of the people we meet and befriend, especially at a young age during unordinary times of indelibility. These next 2 specific weirdos would unknowingly set my life on the trajectory into the orbit it presently resides in. Louie Santucci was a small guy with a big mouth who knew how to launch off his homemade ramp on his skateboard, STANDING UP! and then theres Mark Geyser who loaned me a Blag Flag tape, Wasted Again, which I somehow still have today because at the end of 5th grade we moved back to the Chicago land area when my parents split up. I didn't know it at the time of course, but these two seemingly innocuous acts remained the strongest currents in my life and still do today. The first feathers of punk rock and skateboarding had been affixed to my head dress and from them the earliest curiosities into peeling back the veil on various forms of artistic expression which go hand in hand with a preoccupation into D.I.Y. culture born of necessity, alienation, and escapism. Low brow culture by way of album art, skateboard graphics and public property as potential canvas eventually turned into the idea that I too could make multiples of these silly fleeting and also sometimes serious ideas and concepts which haunted my psyche. It was only natural while at NIU as a painter turned art ed major then painter again, I would dive into screen printing and find a new tool and vehicle to share these ideas with you.