I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN… a live zine portfolio dedicated to building the revolution

Demonstration and project organized by Edie Overturf and Sage Perrott

Description

I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN… is a hybrid print portfolio/demo/zine party/conversation starter which will produce a multiple volume zine collection. The organizers, Edie Overturf and Sage Perrott, will contribute to this project in addition to invited artists who will serve as “zine leaders.” Zine leaders will coordinate with the organizers ahead of the conference, and will be responsible for a theme or category of zine. These categories will focus on topics that are currently shaping popular culture or the political sphere. The organizers and zine leaders will be stationed at tables where conference attendees can collaborate with them on a zine page for a given topic. Collaboration will take the form of drawing. Various drawing materials will be available to the zine leaders and conference attendees. This will incite conversation and collaboration among strangers, as they create together.

The goal is to create an environment where the conversation and creation in tandem encourages future action through live discussion. Unlike a classic print portfolio, where each artist works individually in their studio to create an edition of prints, this event style portfolio allows active interaction while the content is being generated. And unlike a conventional portfolio, the number of participants will be decided by the number of attendees who participate. There is an element of this event that is entirely determined by the people.

This event focuses on the creation of the multiple and drawing as a means to communicate with the printmaking community. Copy machines have long been a tool for zine makers, and we hope to honor this tradition and see how this aligns with more conventional print practices.

Zine leaders and organizers will receive full sets of the produced volumes.

About the artists

Edie Overturf uses traditional printmaking techniques to create visual narratives that question the act of storytelling as well as voices of authority and their effects on communities. The open-ended narrative quality she employs allows the viewer to relate to any or all of the represented spaces, the developed characters, or the suggested scenarios. Overturf received her BFA from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and her MFA from California State University in Chico. Overturf currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where she holds a tenure track position at Mount Hood Comunity College, teaching Printmaking and Drawing.

Sage Perrott, aka Haypeep, is a printmaker and educator originally from West Virginia. Her artwork features grumpy, lumpy, ghost-like creatures situated in cramped, often humorous circumstances. Sage has degrees in printmaking from West Virginia University (BFA) and from Ohio University (MFA). Her preferred process is screenprinting. Currently, Sage is an Assistant Professor of Printmaking at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN. Her prints, drawings, and zines have found their way into the hands of folks all over the United States and the world.

Participants

April Felipe received her BFA from The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and her MFA from Ohio University. April lives in Albany, Ohio working from a home studio. She is an Organizer For The Color Network, and teaches outreach at the Dairy Barn Arts Center.

Katie Garth is an artist in Philadelphia. She received her MFA from the Tyler School of Art in 2020 and BFA from UW-Madison in 2013. Her print-based studio practice engages narrative forms, exploring tensions between the everyday lived experience and the otherworldly and sublime.

Interdisciplinary artist Roger Ourthiague Jr. resides in Minneapolis and he’s currently earning an MFA in Printmaking at the University of Minnesota. Ourthiague’s print-media practice is constantly changing yet centers on persuasive ephemera and subversive text.

Kathryn Polk was born in Memphis, Tennessee and studied painting at Memphis Academy of Art and Memphis State University. Her southern heritage is a major consideration in her work. Her lithographs are exhibited throughout the world as well as the United States. She is co-owner of L VIS Press (recently relocated from Tucson, Arizona to Bloomington, Indiana), a studio dedicated to the development of traditional and experimental printmaking techniques.

Fiona Avocado is a queer and feminist artist and educator born and raised in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Fiona is passionate about connecting with people, sharing personal and collective narratives through art, and imagining and creating a better, more just world. Fiona received their MFA in Printmaking from Ohio University and is currently based in Pittsburgh, PA.

Amze Emmons is a Philadelphia-based artist. He received a BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MFA from the University of Iowa and has since perfected most forms of breakfast. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture.

Stephanie Alaniz was born in Corpus Christi, Texas where they received their Bachelor of Fine Art from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in 2016. Alaniz went on to receive their Mast of Fine Art from West Virginia University in 2019. Currently, they are an educator at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas. They are a fat artist fighting socially created beauty-norms and wants to break down the stigma towards fat bodies, general fatphobia, and normalizing insecurities.

Christina Kang is an artist and printmaker currently based in Cambridge, MA. Originally born and raised in Morgantown, WV she earned her BFA in printmaking from West Virginia University in 2018, MFA in printmaking from Northern Illinois University in 2021, and was the Print Technician and Artist-in-Residence at the Maine College of Art & Design in Portland, ME. She is currently the Studio Coordinator at Harvard University’s Art, Film, and Visual Studies department. Christina’s work is influenced by instructional diagrams, grids, graphs, and other organizational tiny lines.

Time

2-3:30pm, 3:45-5:15pm Friday

10:30am-12pm, 1:30-4:30pm Saturday

Location

Kent State University School of Art

Center for Visual Arts (CVA)

Room 316 (Print Media & Photography Studios)

Wearing face coverings and being up-to-date on Covid-19 vaccinations are strongly recommended at this location.