SHORT RUN SLIDESHOW SERIES

Summer/Fall 2021

 

Short Run Slideshow Series showcased the work of four Seattle comic artists—Lauren Armstrong, Megan Kelso, Myra Lara, and Meredith Li-Vollmer—and their processes of stepping outside of their familiar ways of working. In recent individual projects, each artist confronted unique challenges that inspired them to stretch their usual approaches to research, collaboration, and the comics medium. This video series, taking the slideshow as its model, brings together the artist’s voice with images of the artwork to highlight these new directions.

This exhibition was guest curated by Kelly Froh and Mita Mahato of Short Run Comix & Arts Festival and produced by Hedreen Gallery curator, Molly Mac.

 

(Watch Time: 1 minute, 41 seconds)

Short Run Executive Director Kelly Froh introduces Short Run, and the Short Run Slideshow Series 2021.

Lauren Armstrong

About the Artist: Lauren Armstrong is a comic artist, painter, and straight-up goofball. She graduated from Cornish College of the Arts with degrees in Painting and Video. Her comics have appeared in The Seattle Weekly and comic newspapers Thick As Thieves and Hair Flip. Her artwork has been displayed in Seattle’s City Hall gallery, and a mural she painted is visible in Pioneer Square. She’s been chosen as a Trailer Blaze comic artist resident for 3 consecutive years and is an Advisory Board Member for Short Run Seattle. Find her work at @Larmco and @tigerchildrencobramountain.

 

comic page by Lauren Armstrong

Gator Boi, comic page by Lauren Armstrong, 2021. 

Megan Kelso

About the Artist: Following a brief stint at art school, Megan Kelso completed her B.A. at The Evergreen State College in 1991 where she studied history and political science. Inspired by the explosion of zines, bands, and DIY art projects in Olympia, she started her “Girlhero” mini-comic which ran for six issues. She was the first woman to receive funding from the Xeric Foundation for her comic. Comics from “Girlhero” were compiled into a book published by Highwater Books, titled Queen of the Black Black. Kelso received two Ignatz Awards for her graphic novel Artichoke Tales. In 2007, she was invited by The New York Times Magazine to serialize her “Watergate Sue” comic as part of a weekly Funny Pages feature. In 2019 she was selected for a public art commission as part of the Climate Pledge Arena renovation in Seattle Center. Kelso is at work on her third collection of short stories. Kelso currently lives in Seattle.

3D rendering of art installation by Megan Kelso at Seattle CenterCrow Commute site rendering, by Megan Kelso with rendering by Laura Haddad, 2021.

 

Myra Lara

About the Artist: Myra Lara is an architectural designer, cartoonist, and cultural worker based in Seattle, WA originally from Brownsville, Texas. A true generalist at heart, she explores the intersections of housing justice, environmental racism, border communities, gender and racial identities via self-published comics, zines, protest art, podcasts, social media, and paper architecture. Their current and ongoing projects include carving out a queer commune inside a monster single-family home, building a neighborhood mutual aid network, and breaking down the housing crisis in artful informational morsels.

 

 

 

 comic page by Myra Lara showing guidebook for ending sexual harassment for agriculture workers

¡Ya Basta! Todos Nos Merecemos un lugar de Trabajo sin Acoso Sexual

Comic Page by Myra Lara, 2021.

 

Meredith Li-Vollmer

About the Artist: Meredith Li-Vollmer is a communications specialist at Public Health – Seattle & King County. She is also a cartoonist and on the board of Short Run Comix and Arts. Her comics have been published in The StrangerMUTHA, Illustrated PEN, and the American Journal of Public Health. She received a doctorate in communications from the University of Washington.

 

 

Comic page showing a public health notebook drawingThe Public Health NotebookComic Page by Meredith Li-Vollmer, 2019.