Meri Brin was born in Chicago, Illinois and moved to the Bay Area in 1994. She received her BFA in Printmaking from Academy of Art University, and has taught for them since 2006. She has shown locally and nationally, including a solo show at Oaklandish. Group shows have included Junk Mail at The Soap Gallery, and the Print Zero Exchange in Seattle, Washington. Her prints are in private collections, as well as the Library of Congress. She has contributed artwork to Good Mail Day (Quarry Press) and Stoner Coffee Table Book (Chronicle Books). Brin is a member of Southern Graphics, and is on the publications committee with the California Society of Printmakers.

Elaine G. Chu has taught students of all ages throughout the Bay Area. Her work has been featured in “Greencraft” and “Somerset Studio Gallery” magazines and “1000 Artists’ Books.” She co-authored “Wood Paper Scissors,” a how-to crafts book. Elaine received a B.F.A. in graphic design from University of the Arts and B.A. in music from Yale University. A selection of her art can be viewed at EGChuHancrafted.etsy.com and on Instagram: @egchu1

Rea (pron. RAY-uh) Lynn de Guzman is a San Francisco-based interdisciplinary artist working in painting, print media, and sculpture. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She has exhibited work in the US, and internationally in Australia, India, and the Philippines. She was Kearny Street Workshop’s APAture Visual Arts Featured Artist in 2017. In 2019, she curated "Wander Woman," a group show series featuring Bay Area-based, immigrant, women artists of color. She has been featured in the Asian Journal Magazine, Hella Pinay, KQED Arts, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications.

She teaches art at the de Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, City College of San Francisco Extension, San Francisco Center for the Book, and Root Division, where she served as the organization’s first Filipina Teaching Artist Fellow in 2017.

Paula Gloistein has an MA in Humanities from Dominican College which really has very little to do with her work as a photographer, designer, and letterpress printer. After more than ten years in the wedding biz, she recently opened a small shop, big day design lounge, that showcases handmade wedding accessories, custom invitations, and workshops for crafty couples.

Alan Hillesheim has been wrenching around printing presses for 35 years. Printing presses need to be moved, oiled, inked, cleaned, and maintained, in short they need attention like a six year old. Maintenance is a dirty business, but a necessary one for beautifully printed anything. Alan has a passion for the mechanics of the print studio and enjoys encouraging others to roll up their sleeves and grab a wrench. His 35 years in the letterpress business and “all-ten-fingers” count speak for themselves. Join him and wear old clothes.
Oh, and once the press is in fine order, Alan has a few secrets to divulge about perfect inking and stellar printing.

Li Jiang is a Berkeley-based letterpress printer, graphic designer, bookbinder and print maker. After receiving a Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design she found her way to letterpress printing and continues to gain as much arcane knowledge as possible about the craft from Bay Area printing masters. She regularly prints with a variety of presses such as platen presses, various cylinder presses and 19th Century iron hand-presses. With 15+ years of letterpress printing experience, Li looks for new ways to break the rules.

Stephanie Jucker is an exhibiting artist who uses mixed media and printing techniques in her paintings, books and art installations. Originally from London, where she earned her BFA, Stephanie has an MFA from Syracuse in painting printmaking and ceramics. With 25 years of teaching experience, she currently runs art classes at College of Marin, University of Pittsburgh Art Gallery, and Art Works Downtown in San Rafael.

Brian wandered into SFCB several years ago and continues to haunt the place. He completed both the bookbinding and letterpress cores as well as several of the summer historic structure classes. He enjoys making fully hand-sewn books and still fights to not over-tighten his kettle stitches. He’s lived in San Francisco for more than 20 years having arrived shortly after completing an MFA at the University of Texas at Austin.

Leigh McLellan typeset, letterpress printed, and hand bound letterpress books and broadsides from 1974 to 1990 under her imprint, Meadow Press. She has been an instructor at the San Francisco Center for the Book since 2002. She has also taught letterpress printing, bookbinding, and decorated papers at Mills College and the California College of Arts and Crafts, as well as workshops at the San Francisco Public Library, Stanford University, Pyramid Atlantic in Washington, DC, the Women's Graphic Center in Los Angeles, and the University of Iowa. Her work is in many library collections across the country, including the San Francisco Public Library, the University of San Francisco, Mills College, The University of California Bancroft Library, the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, and the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England, among many others. Her work has been exhibited widely. In a related field, she has been an independent commercial book and graphic designer since 1976, working mostly for publishers in the Bay Area. In both pursuits, she has won many design awards. See Leigh's Meadow Press work at http://meadowpressbooks.com and her commercial design work at http://www.leighmcdesign.com.

Bettina is living in San Francisco as a book artist and working as a letterpress printer with Kim Vanderheiden at Painted Tongue Studios, Oakland, California. She teaches workshops at the San Francisco Center for the Book, the Academy of Art University and O’Hanlon Center for the Arts. She loves books and boxes both as physical objects and as containers of meaning. She is interested in a variety of folded, sewn and woven structures in which she can incorporate her printing.

Read a short interview with Bettina here.

Hanna is a bookbinder and writer living in Burlingame. She has experience in papermaking, bookbinding, and printmaking from her studies at Brown University, and has exhibited work at the RISD Art Book Fair. She is drawn to the tactility of books, as well their ability to partner with text to bring life into the stories kept between pages. Most of all she is passionate about the craft of bookbinding and its respect for the materials it engages.

Taun Relihan is a conceptual and book artist, poet, novelist, photographer, and playwright. She has a doctorate in Integral Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies with a dissertation on renewal by vision. She also has a Masters Degree in Arts and Consciousness from John F. Kennedy University. She is fascinated by the role of wonder, vision, mystery and renewal in the creative process and in the completed art work.

As a composer and visual artist, Gino Robair uses handmade paper and letterpress printing to create unique musical scores. He has an MA and MFA from Mills College and is currently working towards a PhD in Performance Studies at the University of California, Davis, developing performative models for improvised papermaking.

Trina Michelle Robinson explores the relationship between memory and migration through film, installations, print media and archival materials. Her work has been shown at galleries and film festivals throughout the country including including the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia, Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), a Smithsonian affiliate, the San Francisco Art Commission Main Gallery, Minnesota Street Project and Southern Exposure in San Francisco, New York’s Wassaic Project, and the Museum of Contemporary Art - Arlington. As a storyteller, she has told the story of exploring her ancestry with The Moth Mainstage on stages throughout the country including New York’s Lincoln Center and NPR’s Moth Radio Hour. She previously worked in print and digital media in production at publications and companies such as The New York Times T Magazine, Vanity Fair, California Sunday Magazine, and Slack and received her M.F.A. from California College of the Arts in 2022 where she was also awarded the 2020 Yozo Hamaguchi Award. She recently had a solo exhibition at MoAD, as part of their Emerging Artist Program 2022-23. 

Thea Sizemore has been a practicing artist for over 15 years focusing primarily on printmaking, bookarts, and illustration. As an east coast native, she has studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art and the California College of the Arts (where she received a BFA in printmaking with emphasis on bookarts). Her personal work tends to revolve around mixed media hand-bound book forms. Thea is also the founder and printer of Kavamore Press, a custom letterpress and design studio in West Oakland. In addition to private clients, Thea works with various SF Bay Area artists to create ephemera for projects. Recent projects include a Futurefarmers book produced for the Guggenheim and a collaboration with artist Libby Black for the SFMOMA. To read more visit http://www.kavamorepress.com/.

Nearsighted from childhood, Sarah (she/her) learned to read at a young age because she couldn’t see anything twelve inches past her nose. Her love of books continued even after she got her first pair of glasses, and she earned a BA in Comparative Literature from UCLA.

She is the daughter of a printer and a graphic artist; in rebellion, she became a bookbinder. She spent ten years at Arion Press and trained many apprentices in edition binding. She is a longtime student of design bookbinder Eleanore Ramsey and was the proprietor of Bay Area Book Repair for several years. Sarah enjoys sharing the many bookbinding tips and efficiencies she's learned over the years, and finds her own personal projects most satisfying if they make her laugh.

Nikki Thompson is a book artist (aka Deconstructed Artichoke Press) and poet. With an MFA from the California College of the Arts, her art explores architecture, feminism, and the politics of work through the mixed media of bookmaking, printmaking, and photography. Her work has been awarded First Prize at Gallerie Renee Marie and a Purchase Prize at 23 Sandy Gallery. She has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received the College Book Arts Association Project Assistance Grant. She currently resides in Sacramento, California, with her husband and daughter. Her work can be seen at deconstructedartichokepress.com.

Dorothy studied to be something other than an artist. She began as a fashion designer immediately after college but soon she became a partner of a manufacturing company, In Good Company, in 1965. She designed and manufactured kitchen soft goods and linens. Based in San Francisco, it became international and William-Sonoma was one of the main clients. In 1974 she received an award for Women in Business by Wells Fargo, Asian Inc. and NOW for her leadership as a woman of a successful company, In Good Company. The company was sold in 1976 and she became a Consultant to the Fashion Industry by request of the then President, Leonard Joseph. As a production and design consultant, she worked with many identity and music production companies, as well as new startups. While living in Tequisquiapan, she became involved with the Sierra Gorda Ecological Group and taught to help small communities to become self-sustaining. Now in her 80s and living in San Francisco, she is engaged in many volunteer activities, Ruth’s Table, Artseed, SCRAP-SF, San Francisco Center for the Book, and FabMo. She also mentored at Bay High School in their Senior Program. She was past President of Friends of Calligraphy and has been a Master Educator for the Macy’s Fashion Incubator San Francisco. She still has the time to do ‘art’ and has worked on projects for MMOCA, Flax Art and Design, Kalligraphia, Ruth’s Table, FabMo and SCRAP-SF. She is a recipient of Honorable Mentions for her artwork at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art Altered Book Show 2014 and 2015. She is also busy helping her two daughters care for her four grandchildren. To find out more about Dorothy's work, visit her blog www.dotsrainbow.com.