The Studio

SplitGillStudio was founded in 2021 as an integration of the multidisciplinary works of artist and designer, Smote, drawing on their background in fine arts and design to provide a diverse mix of artistry to enjoy. The studio name is a tribute to Smote's first axolotl, Tamago, who has five branched gills on his left side.SplitGillStudio sells both online and in-person at pop-up markets and art fairs (mainly in the RTP area of North Carolina.) The booth often includes interactive elements as well. You can see where SGS will be selling next on the events page!

The Artist

Smote is a queer, multidisciplinary creator with a love of axolotls, tea, books, and nature. Their work spans traditional printmaking and painting to digital art, merchandise design, photography, and more. Much of Smote’s passion for art stems from the profound impact both science and technology played in their early life and continue to be the foundation of their work to this day. Focusing on deconstructing familiar and unfamiliar elements, Smote seeks to create something new where disparate elements combine to create a dialogue with the viewer and the work.An Ohio Native, they attended Kent State University where they received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking, a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication Design, and a minor in Photo-Illustration in 2015. Over the summer, Smote was awarded a two-week residency at Zygote Press and stayed on after to help the shop as an intern and private tutor. Additionally, they were invited to and participated in the Boston Mills ArtFest.In 2015, Smote began attending Syracuse University where they worked on the creation of the 2016 Salt City Dozen juried portfolio and accompanying website, printed under Art Werger and Koichi Yamamoto with Lake Effect Editions, worked as a monitor in the print studio and fabrication lab, and assisted with teaching multiple printmaking courses. They graduated in 2020 with their Masters in Library & Information Science while continuing their work with library makerspaces and creative programming.Smote’s work has been shown in several galleries and exhibitions including Baton Rouge Gallery, Summit Artspace Gallery, the GAR Foundation, ASM International, and Zygote Press. Their work has been published in The Hand Magazine, the artist collective, Ghostbook, and the charity artbook, COLORS Project and has been purchased by private collectors and public institutions. They continue to teach papermaking, printmaking, digital art, and design in both private and public capacities.In 2023, Smote was awarded an Artist Support Grant from the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County, Raleigh Arts, and the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Unfortunately, many small artisans find their works stolen, uploaded, and sold elsewhere without permission. I do not sell NFTs (non-fungible tokens) nor do I permit my work to be used for NFTs or in any other crypto-currency systems.My username for selling will almost always be SplitGillStudio so if you see my work posted anywhere else, especially under a different name, please reach out with the url and let me know so I can file a takedown report.

I do not sell on the following platforms:

Please use this form to get in touch regarding suspicious sales activity:

Rooted Nostalgia
Artist Book, 2015
Serigraphy, plexiglass, acetate, Reeves BFK, cardstock
8" x 5" (when closed), 10 oz, Edition of 1

Three 'chapter' book of Earth inspired by my home and my love of nature and created as a physical manifestation of anticipated nostalgia regarding my significant change of locale after nearly 26 years of living in the same area.Chapter 1: Cartography | Chapter 2: Stratigraphy | Chapter 3: Topography

Moment and Momenta
Artist Book, 2014
Relief printed trash on Reeves BFK, reclaimed wood flooring samples
5" x 4" x 1" (when closed) / 7.75 oz, Edition of 1

A book about sustainability. Trash and recyclables printed on found paper and repurposed ends of scrap wood flooring.

Sumbios
Artist Book, 2015
Serigraphy, plexiglass, vellum
13" x 13" closed, 13" x 91" fully open, Edition of 1

Screenprinted book on vellum. The book is designed to open continuously in a circle, neverending. Pages are printed front and back.

Skins
Artist Book & Installation, 2015
Serigraphy, plexiglass, handmade gampi paper, light
4" x 7.5" (when closed), Edition of 1

Skins uses light and shadow along with printed media to convey the fragility of human existance. The book itself feels incredibly delicate, the membranous handmade paper barely keeping the book together, the clear 'pages' precariously balanced with no support. The skin cells, from one direction slowly fade as they die. However, the paper is much stronger than it first appears and the plexiglas panels are robust. The light blows out the printed media but casts intense shadows upon the surface the book rests upon. Read the opposite direction dying cells return to life.

Remnants
Artist Book, 2015
Lithography, Rives BFK

Lunar Rabbit & Camellia Sinensis
4 Layer Reduction Block Print, 2023
8" x 8", Edition of 20

2023, the Year of the Rabbit. Represented in vibrant red ink, this symbol of hope and peace is surrounded by the flowers and leaves of the Camellia Sinensis plant, from which tea is made.The print is one of the winners of the Yunnan Sourcing Tea Wrapper contest and the image has been printed on their limited release "Yi Wu Villages" Raw Pu-erh Tea 8 Cake Set. If you are interested in purchasing the tea, please visit Yunnan Sourcing.
_{Tea wrapper photographs were taken by Yunnan Sourcing.}

Immergé
Serigraphy & Relief Monoprint, 2015
11" x 15", Edition of 24

Immergé explores the beauty of cellular division and the complexity found within the microscopic world, highlighting the perpetual rhythm of life unfolding at the cellular level.Part of the "OH•IO•WA" Spring 2015 print exchange between Kent State University and the University of Iowa. There were 22 participants in total and prints were displayed at the University of Iowa Elizabeth Catlett Print Gallery in May of 2015.

Oculi Interni
Serigraphy, 2014
11"x15", Edition of 21

Oculi Interni is based on the imaging outlines of the back of the inside of the artist's eyeball, and colors pulled to inspire weather mapping for hurricanes and storms. Printed for the 2014 "Overlie" print exchange.

Aftermath I
Relief monoprints, 2014
8" x 25.5" (set), Artist Print

This is the third print in the series of relief monoprints made from mistakes, scraps, and cast aside pieces from a Makerbot Replicator2x 3D printer.

Aftermath II
Relief monoprints, 2014
12.5" x 9" (individual prints), Artist Prints

This is the second set of prints in the series of relief monoprints made from mistakes, scraps, and cast aside pieces from a Makerbot Replicator2x 3D printer. There are 6 unique prints in this set.

Aftermath III
Relief monoprint, 2014
11" x 22", Artist Print

This is the third print in the series of relief monoprints made from mistakes, scraps, and cast aside pieces from a Makerbot Replicator2x 3D printer.

Ghosts
Imagon prints, 2014
22" x 11", Artist Print

A series of ImageOn prints started during the Print the Midnight Sun workshop in Finland. Individual prints later combined into one larger image.

Tandem ad Finem
Lithography & chine-collé, 2013
11" x 8"

Two stone lithograph print. The first stone was printed with litho crayon and shop black. Green tissue paper chine-collé was added on top and the second stone was printed with a combination of crayon, and alcohol tusche.

BangBang
Serigraphy, 2014
22.5" x 22.5", Edition of 12

Primitus Aduro
Lithography, 2013
Edition of 12

Primitus Aduro is the first in a series of four lithographic prints based around microscopic organic structures.

polyM
Polyplate Lithography, 2013
Edition of 6, 3 paper colors (white, dark green, light green)

Experiment with polyplate lithography using cellular forms as inspiration. Part of the 2013 litho series focusing on biological structure.

Visual Ephemera
Serigraphy, 2014
25" x 16", Two Editions of 20

An Unsurprising Collection of Visual Ephemera I (teal)
An Unsurprising Collection of Visual Ephemera II (green)
Presented as a diptych with both variations mounted side-by-side. Images pulled from mark-making experimentation with various mediums.

Amalgamate
Watercolor Serigraphy, 2012
Serigraphy, watercolor, watercolor pencil, gold varnish
40" x 32" (with mat)

This small variegated edition was created from a single screen print of watercolors and watercolor pencil. The inspiration for these images comes from microscopic photographs of different chemical compounds and cellular structures. The darker yellow/brown overlay is a shimmering gold tone.

Connections
Intaglio & Relief Print, 2013

Aconitum
Serigraphy, 2012
Edition of 15

The piece is very personal but reads as abstracted to others since those outside of my family will not be aware of the significance this work has.Aconitum is a print inspired by my childhood home and the wildflower garden my mother used to have. She was very proud of the monkshood (aconite) flowers that grew there. They were rare enough that she was even in the newspaper for their presence in the garden.The shape of the piece directly relates to our plot of land with the blue representing our house and the lighter brown our driveway. Looking closely you can see the pathways through the garden and the plots where the flowers and trees mainly grew.

Utopia
Wood Relief, 2012
Mylar, vellum

Flux
Sculptural Print, 2015
Serigraphy, hand-cut Stonehenge paper
22"x24"x6"

Flux is a variation on the BangBang prints, taking the two-dimensional form and through cutting and re-arranging the forms, creating a new piece. Flux is in response to the perceived view of the BangBang as lichen or some type of organic life form despite the fact that the original image is of a bullet hole in glass.Flux seeks to juxtapose this life and death imagery, settling into a middle-ground as the sculptural form takes on a blossoming flower-like aesthetic but still maintains the sharp edges and the feeling of chaos and destruction.

Pick/Peel
Installation, 2015
Rives BFK, encaustic wax, magnets
variable dimensions

A coping mechanism and a prompt for discourse on the skin picking disorder, Dermatillomania.

Icarus and The Albatross
Installation, 2014
Serigraphy, laser cut Stonehenge paper, gloss varnish, beeswax

Part of the 2014 Summer Blossom Arts Printmaking workshop: Printmaking in an Expanded Field. The project idea is based on the Icarus mythos and dabbles with the ideology of the albatross from the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. A major component of this installation was the documentation of the processes used. Over 930 feathers were printed for the Myths, Tales, and Illusions: Prinstallation exhibition.

Wassily Columns
Plaster Relief, 2013
Plaster, ink, gold gilding

Wassily Columns was inspired by the plethora of prints during the Fall 2013 IFPDA print week in New York City and a stunning exhibition of Wassily Kandinsky's works at Neue Galerie. It is also an experiment with printing into plaster, a process that is both both intriguing and rewarding.

Reticulate
Sculpture, 2013
Welded steel rods, monofilament

To divide or mark something in such a way as to resemble a net or network. This sculpture is part of ASM's permanent collection.

Posca Marker Paintings
2022

Watercolors & Ink
2022

Illustration

3D Works

Clicking on the gif will take you to the full video

Animal Photography

Black & White Photography

Artist Link Project Rebrand
Logo Design, 2023
Adobe Illustrator CC

10th Annual Fedora Open Commemorative Gifts
for The Michael "Mickey" Soroka Charitable Foundation
Enamel Pin & Ball Marker with Backing Card, 2022
Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe InDesign CC

Han Han
Book, 2010
Rice paper, vellum, inkjet

A book project highlighting Han Han, one of China's most popular bloggers and one of the Time magazine's most influential people in the world from their 2010 edition. This hand-bound book features traditional top-stitching, vellum overlays, and bright red inserts invoking the sense of Chinese traditionalism and Han Han's methods of working around government censorship.

Midnight Bike
Printed on Neenah Paper Cotton Pearl White Letterpress

Fictional bike tour around Jakarta, Indonesia. The ride would take place in the evening and tour three separate landmarks. Mockups of the event numbers indicate that they would glow at night.

Michael "Mickey" Soroka Foundation Annual Golf Fundraiser

Postcard design

KSU Fashion Museum

Design work for promotional materials & public navigation kiosks.