Bronwyn Merritt is a painter and printmaker with an MFA from UNC-Greensboro. Book arts have always been a special part of her practice, especially unusual books forms and complex origami-like structures. She is a recent transplant to Florida and is also very active in the Central

Florida Printmakers, and the Baren Forum online society of printmakers.

Christopher Saclolo is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the scholarship of Filipino American identity through intricate paintings and artist’s books as media with applications in cultural discourse. The work often addresses his own biography in relationship to his Filipino heritage and U.S. upbringing. Filipino/American diaspora, post-colonial Filipino American identity, and syncretic cultures are the conceptual narratives of his current visual explorations. His works are carefully crafted that playfully seek to parallel Filipino patterns to the multi-layered cultural identities of Filipino Americans.

David is a Book Artist, Graphic Designer, and Educator with an MA in Art History and an MFA in Book Arts. He has lived in Oklahoma, Alabama, and now in Florida. He works and lives in Mount Dora with his husband, and their dog Henley.

David's Portfolio

Rachel Simmons is an artist and college educator from Orlando, Florida who makes artist’s books, zines, and prints. She earned her MFA at Louisiana State University in 1999. In her creative practice, she explores environmental and social activism, science, philosophy and memory. She teaches book art and printmaking at Rollins College, directs The Rollins Book Arts Collection, is active in The Book Arts Guild of Central Florida as well as in CBAA The Association for Book Art Education. Find her work at www.rachelsimmons.net and follow her on instagram @bearwithjetpack.

Nikki Fragala Barnes (@bynikkibarnes) is an installation artist and experimental poet making conceptual books. Barnes integrates book arts with poetry workshops, braiding texts and image – transdisciplinary, collaborative, participatory. Their creative practice and research are site-sensitive and community-centered.

Also a university instructor, Barnes works with zines as research method, where their hybrid scholarship bridges language, material, critical inquiry, and inclusive editing / publishing.

Karen Esteves’ interest in artist books began early. At 3 to 4 years old Karen drew on any piece of blank paper she could find. To her father’s dismay, those blank pages were found in books. She has worked as an artist, designer and educator ever since.

Ms. Esteves studied printmaking at Florida Atlantic University. Those skills, along with the introduction of computer aided design led to a degree in graphic design. This, coupled with her interest in books and digital arts led her to artist books and bookmaking. Now retired, she tickles he inner child by exploring movables and pop-up books.

She currently resides in Winter Haven, Florida

www.karenesteves.com