Forest Floor

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. Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery, established in July 2004, is located on the border of Chicago's Lincoln Park and Lakeview neighborhoods in a beautiful vintage building. Since opening, Rotofugi has grown to become one of the world's premier sellers of designer toys from artists all over the world. Rotofugi features a diverse selection of vinyl figures, capsule toys, plush and more from both eastern and western designers. The adjoining Rotofugi Gallery features monthly art exhibits by a range of both local and nationally known artists. Beginning in late 2007 Rotofugi partnered with Chicago based product development specialist Squibbles Ink to begin producing artist-designed figures by the talented designers located in their home town. Click here for more information on Squibbles Ink + Rotofugi projects. Rotofugi is owned and operated by husband and wife duo Kirby and Whitney Kerr. You can find the couple in and around the store on most days. They love to talk about toys and art.