Maria-Elisa Heg is a curator, cartoonist, and organizer with Zine Fest Houston living in Houston since 2005. She received BAs in Medieval Studies and Visual & Dramatic Arts from Rice University in 2009 and an MA in Arts Leadership from UH in 2019. Since then she has been active in various capacities as an activist and artist, participating in shows at the Blaffer Art Museum, CentralTrak (Dallas, TX), Hardy & Nance Studios, Matchbox Gallery, and the Caroline Collective. She has also participated in various festivals including The Portland Zine Symposium, NOCAZ, and STAPLE!. She has been organizing with Zine Fest Houston since 2012 and is currently a Digital Content Manager at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.
Ruslan Kalitin is a Houston-based artist, cartoonist and zinester. His works range from linocut gravures, comic books, and zines to watercolor art books. Representative books are graphic novels: ‘Silver Sedans’, ‘Magnolia’, and ‘Valenki’. Recently he is into art-zines, where color and story are being injected into readers’ blood.
Anastasia “Stacy” Kirages, a Houston-based collage artist and zinester, received a BA in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin, and certificates from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice and the University of Houston’s SURE™ Program, in Arts & Cultural Strategy and Entrepreneurship, respectively. Currently, she is working toward her M.Ed in Reading Education at Texas Woman’s University. She has been a lead organizer for Zine Fest Houston (ZFH) since 2013. In addition to her work with ZFH, she volunteers with Black & Pink, Girl’s Rock Camp Houston, and The Montrose Center. Inspired by the work of Joseph Cornell at a young age while on a field trip to The Menil Collection, she quickly took to collage making and never looked back. You can check out more of her work on Instagram: @k.llages.
Ruben Ramires is a queer artist originally from Portugal. His minimalist and quirky illustrations/poetry are autobiographical, melancholic, and inspired by mental health, and nature.
Patrick Brooks is a Houston-based zine designer/publisher. His primary focus is a family-friendly invitational zine, hey everybody… Let’s make a zine! He has also created a zine for Aurora Picture Show’s twentieth anniversary, five editions of an activist zine targeted towards saving the River Oaks Theatre and various one-off projects. He has been tabling at Zine Fest Houston since 2013 and has been a ZFH organizer starting with the 2021 edition. He hopes to fix his website, west23rdstreet.org any day now.
Previous ZFH Co-organizers
Evan McCarley is an organizer, performer and photographer born and raised in Houston, TX. After studying Art History at University of North Texas in 2008, she moved back to Houston and immersed herself in the local music and arts community. She co-facilitated CounterCrawl, a local arts event, from its second to sixth iteration, and performed with Continuum Performance Art from 2012 to 2015. Evan was a member of the artist board and a lead volunteer for Lone Star Explosion International Performance Art Biannale in 2014, and co-founded Experimental Action Performance Art Festival. She also serves as a lead organizer for Zine Fest Houston. She has performed original work at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, The Byzantine Fresco Chapel, and DiverseWorks. Her performances examine themes such as experimenting with human interaction, secrecy and communication. She is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts at University of Houston-Downtown. Follow her 35 mm photo Instagram: @rotatingdance
Sarah Welch is an artist, illustrator, and comics-maker based in Houston, Texas. She is a regular collaborator with letterpress & risograph print service, Mystic Multiples and co-organizes with Zine Fest Houston. Welch has participated in artist residency and education programs at Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, The MacDowell Colony, Wesleyan University, Lawndale Art Center, and UT Dallas Centraltrak. She is a recipient of grants and support from The Arch and Anne Giles Kimbrough Fund Award (Dallas Museum of Art), The Houston Arts Alliance, The Idea Fund (The Andy Warhol Foundation), and the Fred A. Hillbruner Artists’ Book Fellowship. Her work is included in the City of Houston art collection and can be viewed at Houston’s IAH airport in United Terminal C. Welch is the author of the comic series, “Endless Monsoon” and “Holdouts.”