Plenty of concerts happened last year, did you get merchandise? Deftones, Tyler the Creator, and Taylor Swift all had tours last year, and one thing remains the same: merch tables. The creation of signature tees and logos will forever be important, no matter the city or scale. The same thing is happening underground on the local scale, right next door.
Walking us alongside her process of printing for a local band, Avery Hoppock of Elephantine Prints is a Shawnee Mission North junior who is quite involved in the Kansas City scene. Hailing from Shawnee Mission North, she commutes to several art and hardcore shows to scout out people to print for. Hoppock is the proud head of Elephantine Prints, a screen-printing business made public in Nov. 2025. Despite only having her first art show three months ago, she’s been screen-printing for a little over two years.
“I haven’t done too many connecting motions, but I have met [LOTUS] and other DIY bands. I’m just trying to get my name out there, I’m still starting up. I’ve met a lot of people at my art shows,” Hobbock said. “For the first half of high school I was just [messing] around and doing what I wanted until it looked cool.”
Inspiration comes and goes for Hoppock, however, one thing is ever constant. Her art is a reflection on free usage and out-of-the-box thinking, taking whatever she can find.
“I try to make something that looks like it almost can’t be painted. Kansas City has a public image archive– it has a bunch of historical photos of early Kansas and religious leaders. It’s all free to use, and it’s most of what I use for my art,” Hoppock said. “You own a little piece of heavily obscured Kansas history, and you get to share that with other people.”
Sometimes, starting out can be difficult, and Hoppock recognizes this. Several talented people in her life have chosen not to further their craftsmanship for this reason.
“I have this coworker who says she can’t paint because she never sat down and learned it. It can be frustrating doing trial and error. You have to bury your head in the sand and say, ‘Yeah, it does look bad, but it’s the process and not the product that matters,’” Hoppock said. “My one piece of advice would be do what you want, and if you like how it looks, go with what works. You need opportunities to prove to yourself that you can do cool [things].”
Placing a massive importance on process is a high value of Hoppock’s. Walking into her shop, you notice how meticulous the process really is: creating the image in photoshop, printing the image onto a special light-filtering paper, exposing the screen and paper to timed light, testing the screen on several scrap pieces of fabric and printing on the client’s fabric of choice. It’s visible that everything she does has meaning for her, whether it’s a silly commission of her dad’s face in a stylized frame or her next important art series. Regardless of if DIY resonates with you or not, Hoppock’s story cuts through the bustle of the mundane and sends you deeper into the culture of handmade art. I knew I had to share this story after going into her shop and falling in love with the concept and execution of screen-printing, despite knowing nothing beforehand.
“I like the idea that not all of your art has to be profound. Part of it is finding meaning in what you’d say is insignificant– like my bowls of soup, or rice or bread,” Hoppock said. “It’s not about your resources sometimes, because you always have something. Art can exist in whatever confines you set for it. It’s the mindset and the process [that makes an artist].”
