Saturday, Sept. 17 // 7PM
Rejoice, fans of graphic novels and mixed-media! Scablands Lit and Spark Central present Kelly Froh, Mita Mahato, and Simeon Mills, three stars of the Washington State comics scene. The artists will present their work and then take part in a brief panel. SFCC professor and poet Tim Greenup, who teaches a course on graphic novels, will moderate. Open to the public.
Kelly Froh was born in Sheboygan, WI in 1974. She graduated from Emily Carr University of Art & Design in 2006 with a BFA in Fine Arts. She has self-published many mini-comics and zines including her most recent 36 page all-comics magazine "The Weeknight Casserole Collection". She is an art and creative writing teacher with Seniors Creating Art, Seattle Arts & Lectures Writers in the Summer, and Creativity Inspiring Conservation at the Seattle Aquarium. In 2015 she was nominated for a James W. Ray Venture Project Award. Kelly has performed her comic stories at the Hugo House's acclaimed Literary Series, Lit Crawl, Pecha Kucha, On the Boards, APRIL, and at Bumbershoot. Kelly is also the co-founder and Executive Director of Short Run Comix & Arts Festival, now entering its 6th year, having just been awarded its first NEA grant.
Mita Mahato completed a PhD in English and Film Studies in 2003 at the University of Oregon with a research focus on representations of illness across media. Using collage technique within the comics form, her art explores the transformative capacities of found and handmade paper using layered shapes, textures, and colors that together build multivalent images and stories. Her most recent cut paper comic “Sea” was recognized by Cartoonists NW as 2015’s “best comic book” and will be the subject of continued work during her participation in the Arctic Circle Residency in 2017. Her comics and collaborative projects have been spotlighted by The Stranger, Seattle Review of Books, and AV Club. She is Associate Professor of English at the University of Puget Sound, serves on the board for Short Run Seattle, and teaches art workshops for Seattle Aquarium’s Creativity Inspiring Conservation program, Henry Art Gallery’s ArtVenture program, and other community organizations. She lives in Seattle.
Simeon Mills is a graphic novelist and writer. His shorts stories and comics appear in The Florida Review, Okey-Panky, The Pinch Journal, and elsewhere. His graphic novel, Butcher Paper, received an Artist Trust grant and is now available from Scablands Books. He majored in architecture at Columbia University (2000) and has an MFA from the University of Montana (2004). Simeon is a middle school teacher in Spokane, Washington, where he lives with his wife and two children.
