Kelly is the founder of Brighton Press and a painter, printmaker, and sculptor. His personal work is housed in numerous public and private collections in the United States, including the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts in San Francisco, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis, and the Toledo Art Museum in Ohio. He has an undergraduate degree in philosophy and an MFA from Johnson State College. Kelly was awarded a Pollock Krasner Foundation grant in 2002 and continues making art and books in Vermont and California. He teaches in the art department at the University of San Diego.

Michele Burgess, a distinguished artist and longtime steward of the fine press tradition, passed away peacefully in her sleep on November 2, 2024. She was 63. Burgess worked in printmaking, painting, sculpture, and book art. She received an MFA in printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Burgess’s artists’ books are in public collections across the country and have been exhibited at the Museé d'Art Americain in Giverny, France, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Fresno Art Museum, and Oceanside Museum of Art. She taught for more than 30 years in the art departments at Palomar College, San Diego State University and the University of San Diego. Her personal artwork can be seen at www.micheleburgessart.com.

Martin is a master printer and production designer at Brighton Press, where she began as an apprentice in 1987. She has a BFA in painting, printmaking, and sculpture from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a certificate in architectural drafting from the Phoenix Institute of Technology. Her published artwork is housed in numerous public and private collections in the United States. Her paintings and book arts have been exhibited both locally and nationally.

Antonetti has been a sedulous curator of books at Northwestern University, Smith College, Mills College, and the University of Oregon, where he built collections of rare materials and taught courses in typography and book history. At Smith he founded the Book Studies Concentration, the first of its kind in the country. He also served as Librarian and Director of the esteemed Grolier Club of New York, and has written and lectured widely in the history of the book, including fine printing, letterforms, bookbinding, artists' books, and book collecting.

Jones started volunteering at Brighton Press in 1998. Being a librarian, she attempted to create order out of chaos with/in the archives. After several years and several bookbinding classes with Burgess and Kelly, she gradually progressed to production—and wondered how her life might have been different if she had discovered books arts when in her twenties. She was born in Florida, grew up in Alabama, graduated from Mt. Holyoke College, and received her MLS from UC Berkeley. Jones came to San Diego in 1960 as children’s librarian with San Diego Public Library, raised her family, and later worked at the Museum of Man, Balboa Arts Conservation Center, and Donovan State Prison.

Abigail Jones is a book artist, printer, binder, teacher, and collector living in southern Vermont. She is especially interested in black and white illustrations in books. Photographs, etchings, photogravures interacting with the text create a portable work of art when finely bound. When she is not making or recovering books, she is trying to make room for more.

George has been the copy editor for Brighton Press since 2003. Under her own imprint, DougRegelRome Editions, she has published three limited-edition chapbooks and three framed broadsides, one with former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. George was the founding editor and publisher of FRONTIERS: A Journal of Women Studies (1974-87) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. As a freelancer, she has edited textbooks, nonfiction trade books, fiction, and poetry. She taught copy editing and proofreading at UCSD Extension for ten years.

Abbadi is a Moroccan-born multidisciplinary artist residing in San Diego. Her interests include colonial and postcolonial studies, Orientalism, and the issues of colonial power dominance and their influence on identity and creativity. Abbadi received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine arts and interdisciplinary studies from San Diego State University. She has been working in the areas of painting, printmaking, and bookmaking and has been assisting at Brighton Press since 2004. Her work is at www.jinaneabbadi.com.

Yoshida Park holds a BA in Art Practice from UC Berkeley and an MFA from San Diego State University in graphic design and book arts. She publishes her own editions of artist’s books under the imprint Evidence of the Hand Press, which can be found at www.evidenceofthehand.com. She has taught book arts at SDSU and University of San Diego. In 2019, she co-published The Color System: Schemes for Life Enhancement with Brighton Press.

Banjo: 70% cattle dog, 12.5% miniature poodle, 17.5% Baja blend. Road warrior in training.

Suci: A rascal with a heart of gold.

Together: Eating treats and taking names.

The toughest guard dogs in town.

2000-2018

A true road warrior, he crossed the country thirty-five times.