First Friday with Jess Meoini

About the Artist: A mover-and-shaker from Northeast Pennsylvania, Jess Meoni creates platforms for others by implementing her skills as a graphic designer, event organizer, photographer, writer, and educator. She believes in designing for the common good, utilizing her work in a variety of public means like art festivals, music showcases, film screenings, and other cultural experiences that unify people and foster creativity. Her graphic work, collage, and paintings are bold and brightly colored, often underscored by the nostalgia of all things embellished and rebellious.

As an advocate for socially-charged design, she devotes much of her life to researching the history of the underground press, as well as the impact of other revolutionary art movements. She has presented her graduate thesis, The Graphic Design Techniques and Cultural History of Radical Publications in both Seattle and Boston. She is involved in making zines, self-publishing her music and activism work, Ruthless, since 2008, and is credited with establishing The Scranton Zinefest in 2010. Since then, Jess has launched two successful TEDx Talk conferences, the all-women open mic known as Grrrls Night, and the Weird & Wired Punk Bazaar and Zine Expo.

Jess received her Bachelors of Fine Art in 2012 and her Masters of Fine Art in 2015, both in graphic design from Marywood University. She currently works and lives in Scranton, PA.