Coffee Cat

The Little Friends of Printmaking are a husband-and-wife team of silkscreen artists living and working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Emerging onto an already crowded poster art scene in early 2003, The Little Friends quickly established themselves as an indispensable new talent. They are best known for the interplay of layers in their prints, and a playful looseness that leads the viewer to consider the process by which the image was created. This notion is central to their work-- as commercial screenprinting becomes practically obsolete, the Little Friends do their part to demystify the process and re-affirm the qualities that make screenprints desirable and unique among works on paper. The Little Friends were recently profiled in the new book New Masters of Poster Design (Rockport); their work can also be seen in Beasts! (Fantagraphics), The Darkening Garden (Payseur & Schmidt), and Two Faced: The Changing Face of Portraiture (IdN). They are currently working with Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin to develop a new Print & Publishing lab. Self-produced art toys are designer collectibles created and manufactured independently by the artist or small teams without the backing of a large toy company or mass-market brand. These toys are often highly personal, artistic expressions and are usually made in limited runs. Key Characteristics include independent creation where the artist is in control of the entire process from concept, sculpting, and painting to production and packaging. These are usually made in small batches, often 10–100 pieces, which adds to their rarity, made using materials like resin, sofubi (Japanese soft vinyl), or 3D-printed components.