Bio.

Ray Zill is a printmaker, analog photographer, animator, book artist, writer, and librarian living in Olympia, Washington. She received a Bachelor of Education from University of Nebraska at Omaha (2013), a Master of Arts in Information Science and Learning Technology from University of Missouri (2016), and is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Print Media from Pacific Northwest College of Art (exp. 2025). She is an organizing member and teacher at Community Print and an active member of Puget Sound Book Artists. She is a librarian at The Evergreen State College where, among many other things, she looks after a unique collection of artist books.

Artist Statement.

Ray uses antiquated technology to create text and image works. Her letterpress works show a deep appreciation for the letterform and antique type by allowing the text to exist without need for prescribed meaning. Drawing on her career as a librarian and her lived experience with sight loss, Ray evokes a sense of sadness and longing for physical media. Her printed works reveal a multitude of textures and opacity, drawing on the poetic to form a new relationship to print. Her photographic works depict hidden observances of mundane street life and historic relics living in the present. Experiments in direct animation, sound, and tactile reading activate more recent work to bring a new perspective to her audience.