Our Bio
Sue Lawton
Sue Lawton is an artist and writer from Milwaukee and considers her job a balance between “showing” and “telling”. Since receiving her BFA from Cardinal Stritch University in 2002, she has worked extensively with images and stories. With two illustrated books and several artist-in-residence programs under her belt, she now works in an art laboratory deep in the bowels of the Hide House. There, she can be found hard at work manipulating fictional lives and attempting to reanimate the shed exoskeletons of various insects and mollusks.
Sue has intense obsessions with science fiction, fossils, vintage illustration, local history, fungi, lichen, and caves. All of these find their way into her art and writings. (And many of them also clutter the shelves and walls of her art bunker and her family’s home).
In conclusion, you are invited to join with Sue on her continuing mission: to explore the strangeness of this world, to seek out the origins of life and the history of civilization, and to boldly create art for the future of our communities and planet.
Ven Loetz
Ven Loetz is an inter-dimensional being from the moon world Damos Nuhl. After being stranded on Earth in a cosmic accident, Ven has decided to use their time here to study the planet’s various inhabitants. Ven considers their job a balance between observing and documenting all aspects of evolutionary and cultural processes. Since receiving their HES (Honors in Earthan Studies) from Alma Minora Academy, they have worked extensively with images and journals of Earthan processes. Ven can be found taking photos and careful notes on beaches, trails, in museums, and human habitats of all kinds.
Ven has intense obsessions with evolution, fossils, lichens, insects, human behavior and pocket dimensions (invisible to the human eye). Ven is particularly interested in the human proclivity toward narrative and how this cognitive bias impacts all planetary life. Ven’s work focuses on the processes of continual change, the role of chance in evolutionary outcomes, and the beauty found in both novelty and repetition within this continuously iterative system.
In conclusion, you are invited to join with Ven on their continuing mission: to explore the strangeness of this world, to seek out the origins of Earth life and civilizations, and to boldly create beautiful archives and collections for the future of our communities and planets.