(tools tap) - I was encouraged from when I was very, very little by my entire family to be an artist.

I'm more classically trained in painting and drawing and I kind of found my way on my own into printmaking.

(roller rattles) My work has a sense of humor.

I think I'm always trying to invoke a response.

(roller whirs) And I think I always want that response to be a laugh.

(page scrapes) (gentle music) We are at River Press, which is a shop, studio, and gallery.

I work out of here.

We do workshops.

We host rotating three month installations in our gallery and we sell art from over 50 Milwaukee local artists.

I was so tired of vending every weekend all summer.

And I figured there would be a better method somehow to get my work and my friends' work out there.

I think it's really important to have art around us that feels close to us and true.

Art made by our neighbors reflects our own experience and I think that's extremely valuable.

I am trying to make it so everyone feels ready and excited and present to make art and think about art and engage with art and enjoy it.

(gentle music fades) (bright music) (bright music continues) (bright music continues) (tool scraping) I've been working on a small series for a couple of years now called "Pace Car".

(tools clatter) It is signs that are notable to me for some reason, usually from places that I've lived, usually ones that I have seen over and over and over and over.

This is specifically the old Walmart sign in my hometown in the Upper Peninsula.

There is a wonderful song by Willi Carlisle called "What The Rocks Don't Know", and a line in it is, "Angels wings on a Walmart sign."

And I thought about it until it came out on paper.

I think there is so much seriousness in the art world that a little bit of goofball goes a really, really long way in making it accessible to folks who may not be interested in a traditional gallery experience.

I think we're at 51 or 52 artists in the shop right now.

A lot of them are folks that I have worked with in the past or met while I was vending at various events in town and made friends with.

I met people that I have collaborated with that I wouldn't be able to do this without, and I learned about maintaining those relationships and taking care of people, especially in a creative space so that they feel welcome and excited and happy to be here.

(gentle music) David Arnevik is a designer who did the new Riverwest street signs.

I have a few of his works in the studio and they are very popular.

Margaret Nielsen, known as Grandpastuff, she does a lot of plush works.

Francisco Ramirez sells a lot of prints here.

He was the first person who decided that I was a printmaker.

And that is one of the reasons we're here.

I don't think we would be if I hadn't met so many other printmakers in town.

I saw my first art vending machine at the Chicago Cultural Center.

(tray rattles) I bought my first machine a few years after that on Facebook Marketplace.

The Wizard's Print Snacks is what they're called, and I've coordinated with a good handful of artists, probably about 20, to give me art for these machines.

It is so fun and joyful.

So this is our first installation in the Micro Gallery.

It is a monoprint installation using metallic foil made by Sarah Jane Sutterfield.

Her work is so unique and present and colorful and shines so beautifully in that window and it's really been something special.

Most of our gallery installing artists have had no solo shows, or maybe one.

It's kind of an intro into the experience that it is to create a breadth of work that fills a space in a low pressure environment.

So folks are able to really take the lead with support.

So I help out with the installation.

I help out with the planning.

I help out with whatever they need.

(knife scraping) David De Silva is a Riverwest local.

David is a relief printer, much like myself.

He has a really compelling individual style that is full of color and intensity and movement.

He's almost always telling a joke that everyone gets to be in on.

It really reflects his personality of being a little bit weird in a way that is so warm and interesting and compelling.

In college, I learned about (gentle light-hearted music) the human propensity for mark making.

I really do believe that to make visual representation of our experience is inherently human the same way that dancing or language can be.

Everyone has capacity and the tools and the urge to make art.

(roller whirring) But because culturally, we experience this expectation that everything we do we be good at.

It feels really inaccessible.

There is so much satisfaction in complex problem solving, which is kind of what art is.

Figuring it out is the best part.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] Thanks for watching the Arts page.

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