Kelly Vivanco was born in Redondo Beach and grew up in front of a sketchpad with a box of colors in suburban Southern California. Kelly received her BFA with honors from Laguna College of Art and Design in 1995.  She enjoys setting whimsy to work upon natural enigmas and pulls influence from animals, vintage photographs, children’s literature and the idiosyncrasies of dreams.

In 2004 Kelly became a Studio artist at Distinction in Escondido and maintains a working studio there still today.

Paul Chatem was born in 1974 in Bellevue, Washington, and grew up in La Crescenta, California. He graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1997 with a BFA in Illustration. While working various arts related jobs in the entertainment industry Paul developed his own personal work and started showing in group shows in Los Angeles. His first solo show “It Tastes like Whiskey” opened Feb. 2006 at the Black Maria Gallery in Atwater, CA. Since then his work has been featured at The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco CA, The Bluebottle Art Gallery in Seattle WA, Copro Nason Gallery in Santa Monica CA, as well as in many group shows in the North America and abroad.

Mark co-founded bOING bOING magazine and the Boing Boing Blog, and was an editor at Wired from 1993-1998. For three years, he wrote a monthly column for Playboy called "Living Online," and was the co-editor of The Happy Mutant Handbook (Putnam-Berkley, 1995). Mark is the design columnist for Mobile PC magazine and a contributing editor to The Feature. He is also a ukulele fanatic. From June to October 2003, him, his wife and two daughters around the South Pacific.

Jordin Isip is from Queens, New York but has lived in the sister borough of Brooklyn since graduating with a BFA from 

Rhode Island School of Design. He has exhibited nationally in galleries in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, and abroad in Berlin, London, Manila, Paris and Rome. His art has been published in numerous periodicals including Arkitip, The Atlantic Monthly, Juxtapoz, The New York Times, Rolling Stone and Time and on bookcovers, posters, t-shirts, records and cds. Jordin has also curated over a dozen group exhibitions. He is currently teaching at Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Jen now resides in Brooklyn, New York. She migrated over to New York in 2002, and earned a BFA in Cartooning at School of Visual Arts. Jen currently does comics on ACT-I-VATE and is working on other projects that involve illustration and silkscreen.

Fascinations include: trees of varying forms, the culinary arts, beaches that hug the Pacific Ocean, dance parties.

Matt talks to himself in funny voices when he paints at night... most commonly in drunken british and Fire Marshal Bill. According to him, it is the only way he can reach the inner sanctuary of his creative nectar... through the nobel and sophisticated vibrations of the drunken british voice, spawns the very fruit of his creations. The drunken british voice unlocks the portal to the infinite ideas of the sub conscious and through the beauty of the Fire Marshal Bill voice these visual ideas can be carried out through his hand.

Melinda Beck is an illustrator and graphic designer who works out of her studio in Brooklyn, New York. She received a BFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1989. Since then she has done illustration and graphic design for such client as Nickelodeon, Nike, MTV, Island Records, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Progressive, and Time Magazine. Her work has received awards from and publication in annuals including American Illustration, The Art Directors Club, Society of Publication Designers, Communication Arts, Print Magazine, The Society of Illustrators, The AIGA and ID Magazine.

“I live in Seattle, Washington and have been painting this type of imagery on wood slabs since about 1990.

NYC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Atlanta, Dallas, Stockholm and Copenhagen are among the many places I've exhibited my art.

Obviously, I'm obsessed with pin-ups and pop culture. The paintings are reflective of my various interests - from collecting sleazy vintage men's magazines and watching sexploitation sinema from the 50's & 60's; to the toys, dolls, television shows, comics and collectibles from my childhood. These two seemingly unrelated worlds collide and happily mesh together in my work.”

Jason Limón was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas in 1973. He first showed his artistic expression at a fairly young age doodling characters and sceneries inspired by his bustling neighborhood and surroundings. He studied fine arts and graphic design at the Visual Arts & Technology Center at San Antonio College and entered the field of commercial graphic design in 1995 acquiring comprehensive knowledge of type, color and composition. He is currently creating gallery work and commercial illustrations, some of which can be seen in Communication Arts, Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, American Illustration, Print Regional Design and Graphics.

Gary Taxali was born in Chandigarh, India in 1968. A year later, he and his family immigrated to Toronto, Canada.  In 1991, he graduated from the Ontario College of Art and immediately began working as a professional illustrator. Currently, Gary is working on his next mass production toy figure, "Oh No", and "Oh Oh" under the name of his new company, Chump Inc. as well as 'This Is Silly", a children's book published by Scholastic and slated for a summer 2009 release.

Southern California born but Northern California raised artist Rick Reese has been painting and drawing for as long as he can remember. He got his start in the comic book and toy industries where he continues as a freelancer to this day. Rick spends his days painting, surfing, or indoctrinating his students. Rick’s paintings are compilations of his experience. His work frequently juxtaposes found objects, fragments of signs and

advertisements, and graphic images intertwining to create an active surface.The graphic style of comic art, graffiti, surf and skate culture,

advertisement lettering and illustration from the 50’s and 60’s.

Dear Libby. Native to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Kendyl Lauzon migrated to western Canada to earn her degree at the Alberta College of Art and Design. An award-winning illustrator, she is currently working as a freelance artist out of her home, specializing in children's media and editorial illustration.The name Dear Libby is inspired by the life and spirit of her grandmother, Elizabeth. Since family has always been an important part of Kendyl's life, her illustrations tend to feature characters representational to the members of her family.

Chris Ryniak was born as a baby in 1976 in the suburbs of Detroit. He spent his childhood basking in the warm glow of Saturday morning cartoons and flipping over rocks in search of insects, reptiles and ghosts.

Years later...

A graduate and former instructor of the Ringling School of Art and Design, He is now a painter and sculptor of all manner of critters.

Chris now resides in a coastal Ohio Dutch Colonial with his wife, two children, dog, cat and Venus Flytrap. Sadly, no ghosts as of yet.

I somehow have been able to make a living as a freelance artist. Big shot clients include, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Spin, The New York Times, Time, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, The New Yorker and Juggs. In-between paying jobs I create fine art masterpieces (I'm keeping a positive attitude) that hang on gallery walls. Also in my spare time I work on tattoo flash. So next time you're in a tattoo shop looking for something to have etched on your skin, check out the flash on the walls for some of my stuff. And, if you have a shop, why not buy one (or all) of my 3 sets today? I'm a man of simple pleasures.

Esther Pearl Watson grew up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Her family moved often, since her father's hobby of building huge flying saucers out of scrap metal and car engines didn't always sit well with the neighbors. Esther's pieces are often overtly narrative, clear but mysterious scenes of houses or figures ornamented with snippets of prose telling just enough to get the viewer's own imagination engaged, wanting to know more. Some are about family, some about places, all have a rich  interior life. Her works without words are just as suggestive of story, also exerting a deep emotional pull.

Glenn Barr is one of Detroit's most celebrated and successful underground artists. His paintings have appeared in galleries from Seattle and San Francisco to New York City. Glenn's work has been featured in a variety of comics and graphic novels such as Mad, DC Comics and Paradox Press as well as in a series of self published books called HEEP. Barr's contribution to animation include background styling for The Ren and Stimpy Show, Bjork's I Miss You video and The New Woody Woodpecker Show. Barr's paintings have been reproduced in art journals like Juxtapoz, Erotica and Film Threat magazine.

Ryan Heshka was born in Brandon, Manitoba and raised in Winnipeg at the end of the "lo-tech" era. Drawing from early influences too numerous to list, he ended up working in the fields of interior design and animation before his current career as an illustrator. Represented in North America, Europe and Asia by Kate Larkworthy Artist Representation Ltd., he resides in downtown Vancouver.

Katy Horan’s paintings and drawings are meant to be the long lost folk art from an imaginary world. Based on a wide variety of interests and influences, her work tells stories about the characters and communities that populate this world. Since receiving her BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003, she has shown her work in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Louisville. For now, she lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.