My spring 16 Understanding the Visual II class participants at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design paid a studio visit and received a tour of the art collection at the Pfister, courtesy of Artist-in-Residence 2015-2016, Todd Mrozinski. 

Todd talked us through part of his process painting his Shadow Series. As a MIAD alum, Todd had a lot to offer my students, welcoming us into his studio for an intimate chat.

Molly and Royal are offering a kids zine workshop again at the Milwaukee Zine Fest, Saturday, November 9, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the Center Street Free Space, 703 Center St. 

The 6th Milwaukee Zine Fest is held at the Polish Falcon Nest, 801 E. Clarke St. 

We are tabling kids’ zines (as well as our own) again this year. Royal’s Writing Studio students at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design are also tabling with zines they designed in class.

This is our fifth zine workshop: we’ve held two at our home, one at the studio of the Pfister artist-in-residence, Stephanie Barenz, and once before at Zine Fest. 

The Fest runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Stop in and see us, have a drink at the bar and food at Tess’ Vegan Cafe, talk zines and share in a vibrant DIY publishing culture. 


Visit the Milwaukee Zine Fest Facebook page for more information. 

Molly has contributed a non-traditional haiku, "Rotunda singer," to the chapbook Turn Up the Volume: Poems about the States of Wisconsin, published by Little Bird Press. Proceeds from sales go to the First Amendment Protection Fund which helps the legal defense costs of activist singers in the Wisconsin state capitol. The Rotunda or "Solidarity Singers" have been issued citations and arrested for protecting our first and fourth amendment rights and for standing up to that bully currently in the governor's office.

To order your copy, go to the Fund's site, click on donate and type "chapbook" in the "purpose" box. Payment is through Paypal and you have to enter the cost ($20.00 per copy) and postage ($2.00).

There is a chapbook launch reading at Woodland Pattern, 720 E. Locust St., Milwaukee, on Friday, Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.

Our zine-making workshop at the Pfister was a lot of educational fun. Mr. Zach Wiegman, a teacher at St. Marcus School in Milwaukee, has been designing extra-curricular projects in writing and arts with his partner, Stephanie Barenz, the current Pfister artist-in-residence. 

Molly and I were given the opportunity to inaugurate a new project in zine making with seven St. Marcus students, three of whom typically work with Stephanie on visual art interests while the others tend toward writing projects with Zach.

The zine workshop was a good way to bring those interests together.

From a tap-dacning  rooster who doesn't dance (at least until the sequel) and "Destiny," the story of two super heroes who (or course!) are about to save the world to typed poetry and a stick-figure Superman, these kids had great ideas. 

Thanks Zach and Stephanie: we had a great time spreading the word of and love for zines. 

Here's a slideshow of the students at work: 

On June 15th we taught a Dabble class. With over 12 years of blogging experience, Molly was courted by the Dabble folks to host one on the topic and, once she said yes, we added Royal's 13 years teaching experience and ... hey, there was learning. About blogging. And we had serious fun.

Our class was great. The folks who signed up for it were really cool, had lots of ideas and, we think, are well on their ways to posting insightful writing about surviving cancer, books they've read from a teen perspective, instructing and critiquing rehabilitating homes and adding personal and manageable updates to their professional and scholarly websites.

We'll share the great work of these folks once it starts coming out.

Thanks for the wonderful class!