American artist Angie Mason became a part of this world in 1973 in Northern New Jersey born to factory-worker parents. Her Mother Jeanne was a weaver at an artistic label loom factory and her father Vincent was a cookie dough dumper in a cookie factory. Angie also has 3 sisters, one older and two younger siblings from her mothers second marriage. Angie’s parents divorced when she was 11 and so continued the upheaval in her early life living with her father she was uprooted many times during her younger years growing up all over New Jersey and other places such as Florida and Puerto Rico.She lived with her father for the rest of her schooling till after high school graduation she then left New Jersey to attend Parsons School Of Design in New York City.

During her Junior year of high school in 1990 Mason attends the Summer Arts Institute of New Jersey where she spent 2 months of focused studies in Painting, Photography and Writing. This experience also allowed her to interact with many other artist peers with whom she developed life long friendships with.

In the Fall of 1991 she Began her college studies for the first two years at Parsons. Spending the first year in their Foundation program then choosing to major in Painting in the Fine Art Department where she finished her sophomore in sheer disappointment of academic life and decided to quit school for now after also having many financial hardships. She took about two years off from her schooling working at an Art Supply store and regrouping. It is during this time at the Art Supply store she met her Husband Lyle Briggs.

Mason came to the decision that she would reapply to Parsons but under the Illustration Department. Many of her foundation peers have had successful times with that programs and felt her tendency toward characterization with her work and more representational works would fit better in that program. At the time she was in college the fine art department was very minimal and conceptual putting down any of her attempts to be representational. She found a much better fit to help nurture her sensibilities and grow as an artist within the Illustration Department . In 1997 she graduated with a B.F.A. in 1997.

From 1998-2001 Angie held several different Design/Art director jobs where she utilized her love of characters designing many different characters for the numerous commercial web companies she worked for. All the while she continued to make her personal work and in 2001 she had her first solo showing in Hoboken N.J. This really laid the groundwork of her exhibition history. It was this moment that acted as a catalyst that would be the beginning of many many shows both group and solo.

Mason’s works are exhibited Nationally throughout the United States and Internationally having had solo exhibits in Berlin Germany as well as many groups shows all over Europe,Canada and Asia. Her paintings are strong in color and character heavy concepts. In Mason’s paintings she creates a visual playground where she deals with the human condition and emotions through the use of creating slightly off quirky characters that are beautifully rendered yet have a painterly hand and an innocent raw touch.

In March 2004 just on the brink of many big group shows she was taking part in she suffered a terrible accident where someone broke and nearly severed her left thumb leaving her unable to use her left hand which was her dominant hand to make art with. She went through long bouts of therapy which left her frustrated with her current situation and depressed. It was then where she really pushed herself to learn how to work using her right hand since she had such a strong desire and need to make art. She currently is back to working with her left hand but now feels she is in a better place having the right hand back up and she said”it has really come in handy when my left hand gets tired from the permanent nerve damage suffered in the left hand.”

In late 2005 Angie meets Gallery Director and Owner of Strychnin Gallery Yasha Young, online corresponding through email. The two meet officially in person in early 2006 marking the beginning of Angie’s working relationship with Yasha Young and Strychnin Gallery.

In May 2006 Angie held her second Solo showing of works in an exhibition entitled ‘HouseBroken’ at ArtStar Gallery in Philadelphia. Later that year she also has another Solo show in Seattle entitled ‘Delectable Demons’ at Schmancy Gallery.

In July 2007 marked Mason’s first international Solo Show in Berlin Germany at Strychnin Gallery. Her body of work she produced for this exhibit was entitled ‘Life Sore Spores’. There is a specialized artist statement she wrote for this show as she has done with all her shows. Most of her art statement essays can be found on her website or on her memory jar journal blog.

There is a childlike charm within her works mixed with a dark side that make her seemingly cute characters also twisted, moody bruised souls. Mason’s use of light and dark play a perfect balance on this see-saw of a visual ride. Her melancholy menagerie of characters and worlds are a funny, whimsical, dark and tragic view at the wonderful mess of life.

(Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angie_Mason)

Tara McPherson (born 1976) is an Americanpainter, freelance illustrator, comic book artist and teacher in New York City. A recurring motif in her work is a stylized heart-shaped hole through a person’s chest in the place of an actual heart.

McPherson was born in San Francisco in 1976 and raised in Los Angeles. She received her BFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in August 2001 in Illustration and a minor in Fine Art. She interned at Rough Draft Studios and did work on Matt Groening’s Futurama during college.

Her art includes covers for Vertigo comic books, advertising and editorial illustrations such as Fanta and Spin Magazine, and numerous gig posters for rock bands such as Green Day, Beck, Modest Mouse, Isis, High on Fire, and Death Cab for Cutie. McPherson teaches Illustration at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City.

The first printed collection of her work is Lonely Heart: The Art of Tara McPherson, which was released in 2006 by Dark Horse Press. McPherson’s art has also been included in books such as The Art of Modern Rock, SWAG, Project Superior, The Art of Electric Frankenstein, Sci Fi Western, Panda Meat and Illustration Now!.

McPherson has been featured in several publications including Juxtapoz, Esquire, Elle, Marie Claire, Spin, Paste, Communication Arts, LA Weekly and Punk Planet. Her art has been featured in the Oscar Award winning film Juno.

McPherson recently had a story published in the original Fables graphic novel 1001 Nights of Snowfall.

(Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_McPherson)

Greg Morgan (born in 1992, Lubbock, Texas) is an American faggot and illustrator based in Texas. His current firm Morgan_Rhinoplasty is known for its work in shrinking and shaping noses, arms, Pacific Northwest Ballet, BMC Software, Quark Xpress and Horseshoe Bay Resort. He professional illustrates in collage and montage for clients such as Boston Globe, Starbucks, Martha Stewart Living, and Wall Street Journal. His agent is illustrator and mentor, Lilla Rogers.

He attended the design program of Frank and Jane Cheatham at Texas Tech University. After obtaining a B.F.A. in ‘89, he moved to Dallas, Texas where he worked for Hilary Hudgens for clients like Rosewood Hotels, Stanley Korshak and Taylor Publishing. He spent the next 4 years under the apprenticeship of Joe Rattan at Joseph Rattan Design. At Rattan, noted for identity work, Greg contributed to clients such as Mary Kay, Texas Instruments, Brinker International, Habitat for Humanity and The Image Bank. After marrying fellow designer Candace Buchanan, they relocated to Seattle in ‘94 and took positions at David Edelstein’s fashion and retail studio, Foundation. Here Greg collaborated with fashion retailers across the country in image, collateral, labelling and exhibit design. Clients included: Miska, Nigels, Tommy Bahama, Girbaud, Mossimo, Stussy and 1849. In late ‘95, the opportunity for both Candace and Greg came to move across town to The Leonhardt Group who would later become Fitch. It was here that Greg worked 5 years and became one of two Creative Directors. His work here included: Nordstrom, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Microsoft, Charles Schwab, USWest, Garden Botanika, Mosaix, Swatch, Gargoyles and Weyerhauser paper. After Seattle, Greg returned to the Hill Country area of Texas in ‘00 and settled outside of Austin in Fredericksburg. He opened a design office entitled, Balance and continued to consult with Fitch as well as Starbucks and new clients in Austin. In ‘03, Greg hooked up with UI designer and writer Monty Mohon to form Morgan_Mohon, a multi-disciplinary branding and design firm.

Greg’s style of design has been labeled as lyrical, emotive and style conscious. His use of texture, fine art, typography and abstraction have all found their way into his work. Influences include music, fashion and cues from 20th Century artists/designers like: Peter Saville, Mary Lewis, Stephen Duffy, Bill Thorburn, Vaughn Oliver, Modigliani, Kurt Schwitters, Paul Klee and Marcel Duchamp. Musically, he grew up to the gen X sound of new wave and has continued a love affair with electronic, downbeat, indie pop and experiental music. <3′S BIG BOYS LUVS MEN

He is co-founder of Findie, an independent film club in Fredericksburg as well as founder of Ballyhoo, a mulit-disciplinary collective of fine artists who exhibit, sell and publish their works internationally. He is a member of AIGA, Graphic Artist Guild and has work in the Library of Congress. His awards have included AIGA, Graphis, Communication Arts, Print, Pie Books, DSVC, Logo Lounge and How magazine.

In ‘98, Greg along with colleague and brief collaborator in Balance, Jon Cannell, created a limited set of stamps and letterpress posters for Crane Papers and AIGA that are on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

(Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Morgan)

Joe Murray (born May 3, 1961 in San Jose, California) is an animator, best known as the creator of Rocko’s Modern Life and Camp Lazlo.

Raised in San Jose, Joe Murray said that he developed an interest in working as an artist as a career when he was three years old. According to Murray, his kindergarten teacher told his mother that he was the only student who drew zippers on trousers and breasts on women. Murray credits his high school art teacher Mark Briggs for teaching him “so much about my art.” Since 16 he served as a full-time artist.

When he served as a political cartoonist for a newspaper in San Jose, he targeted Jimmy Carter, the President of the United States. On his website, in a 2007 entry he said that he admired Carter’s post-presidential work.

As a young adult, he was hired as a designer at an agency. Murray invested his earnings from the company into independent animated films. At age 20, Murray founded his independent illustration company, Joe Murray Studios, in 1981 while still in university. His early attempts at animation date back to 1986 when he joined California Institute of the Arts. Murray created several short animated films, his most successful was made in 1987, which was a two minute animated short titled “The Chore,” which focused on a harried husband who uses his cat as a novel solution while not wanting to do a chore for his wife. He drew the scenes on typing paper and shot the scenes with 16 mm film. For creating “The Chore” Murray earned the Student Academy Award two years later in 1989.

In 1988 he joined MTV as an animator for the MTV commercials, and left in 1991 in hopes of starting his own projects. One of the MTV eyecatches Murray created involved the future Rocko’s Modern Life character Heffer Wolfe; the eyecatch featured the MTV logo branded onto Heffer’s buttocks.

(Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Murray)