Issue 001
Issue 002





Issue 002
Preorder for pickup in June:  CLOSED
GENERAL RELEASE for pickup this summer: OPEN


Following the Trail:
Experimenting with Cultural Legacies

This edition showcases a diverse range of stories, highlighting individuals from various communities and identities whose creative work draws from deep cultural expression and exploration. Every artistic choice is influenced by the past and shapes the future, prompting us to ask: How do individuals preserve these narratives in ever-evolving cultural snapshots?

 By committing these stories to paper, we hope to create a tangible, physical legacy that our contributors can hold in their hands.  indelibly marked for generations.


Read About the Interviewees:

Erick Morales-Hernandez  

Interviewed by: 
Sofia Esparza 

Photos by: 
Elijah Elliott 

Styling by:
Jake Everswick Creating under the name ZKERETO, Erick Morales-Hernandez is a graphic designer studying apparel design at the University of Minnesota. He works on freelance graphic design projects like posters for Time Kiss Skate and After Hours Skateshop, where he recently designed art for a John Brandt film premiere in collaboration with both skate companies.


His recent “Yes, This Shit is Personal” project features a series of prints as a reflection on his Hispanic culture, especially amidst Operation Metro Surge and a period of attacks by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. 



Camden Stevens  

Interviewed by: 
Bea Healey 

Photos by: 
Maksym Khutorianskyi 
 Camden Stevens is a Twin Cities-based multidisciplinary artist and curator. Stevens has developed a curatorial approach centered on accessibility, collaboration, and community-building within gallery spaces. 

At the time of this interview, Stevens was curating “Oblivion,” a multimedia exhibition exploring unease, liminality, and the emotional experience of existing “in-between.” Combining painting, sculpture, sound design, and immersive installation, the show reflects Stevens’s interest in finding stability through art in a world of social and political uncertainty.  





Daisy  Aung

Interviewed by: 
Kaia Ludtke

Photos by: 
Elijah Elliott 

Models: 
Ella Dalby
Myla Lasley
Kiona
Daisy Aung
Estelle Harsh 




Based out of her bedroom in Minneapolis, Daisy Aung has spent the last year transforming her creative practice from a casual hobby into an intentional, sustainable design brand. Rejecting fast fashion to minimize waste, Daisy's work blends a raw, textured grit with an ethereal, historical romanticism.

 This ethos recently culminated in her first major runway collection for Fashion MSP, where she juggled college finals to debut a deconstructed, baroque-inspired mini-collection that brought 18th-century silhouettes into a mystical dreamscape.




seangarrison

Interviewed by: 
Anna Zindren

Photos by: 
Annie Chu Working under a self-defined lexicon he calls “abstracproseality,” seangarrison is a multidisciplinary artist. After four decades as a writer, he moved to the canvas, where his work draws on billboard design theory and personal iconography to translate the rhythm and abstraction of poetry into his visual works. He is best known for “Walking on Air,” a live painting made at the moment of Derek Chauvin's conviction, which gained national attention for capturing a rare communal exhale amid ongoing police violence.







The Cactus Blossoms

Interviewed by: 
Jane Crabtree

Photos by: 
Tove Moen
Scotty Monten
Their vintage harmony sound has taken them throughout North America, Europe, and even on the screen of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks revival. With their debut album hitting its 10-year mark, The Cactus Blossoms returned to The Turf Club in St. Paul for their beloved January residency, where they packed the club with fans every frigid Monday night.

Brother duo Jack Torrey and Page Burkum sit down to discuss their experience growing up in the Twin Cities and the impact the community has had on their musical careers.


Clarine Lee  

Interviewed by: 
Ayrion Gordon-Jackson 

Clarine Lee makes memory tangible, and her inspiration sits at the convergence of childhood, longing, and the embrace of imperfection. Based in Pittsburgh, the Seoul-born artist blends photography, textiles, and book design to explore the inherent fragmentation of the diasporic identity.

Through intentional acts of erasure, utilizing tactile mediums like dissolvable fabric, photo-transfers, and obscured text, Lee captures the tension between holding on and letting go. Her work does not seek absolute clarity; instead, it honors the beauty of partial preservation, translating the fleeting nature of loss, language barriers, and childhood recollections into deeply intimate, physical forms.







Dominique Drake

Interviewed & photos by: 
Cicely Bass


Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dominique Drake is an actor pursuing a BA in both Theater Arts and Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. He has been acting consistently since high school, and, at the time of this interview, was performing as the lead in the premiere of a new play by James Craven and Kym Longhi, Waking Miss Daisy. 

For his capstone, Drake has moved away from performance and taken on a new type of project: writing a full-length play. Currently untitled and in progress, the insightful script examines race relations among peers, Black culture, Black music, and the role of blackface in the modern world. 






Ezra Ketter-Smith

Interviewed by: 
Adasha Moser

Photos by: 
Emma Highfield
Alicia Moore
Elijah Elliott
Debora Abadi 

Models: 
Erin Kane 
Hunter Hagedorn
Ramiro Duran
Anna Keith
Monroe Chumklang
Yousef Madkour
Mary Turner  Ezra Kettersmith, creating under his brand Ezra Ketter Smith, is a Minneapolis-based fashion designer that seeks to evoke specific feelings and experiences through his garments. Having studied kinesiology, his clothes act as somewhat of a response to his interest in the human form, and how it relates to the clothes you wear. How much is revealed and how much is hidden?


Since pivoting to fashion design full time after working in orthopedics for two and a half years, Kettersmith has released several collections, including a project where he made a “Piece A Week” for an entire year, and also a show in New York Fashion Week as a featured young designer.





Uzoma Nguwu

Interviewed by: 
Sophia Arndt 

Photos by: 
Alicia Moore 
Growing up in the Twin Cities, 24-year-old Uzoma Ngwu had never thought of herself as just an animator. Describing herself as a multidisciplinary artist working in poetry, illustration, and music, Ngwu took her first animation course at Harvard University before graduating in 2023. 


This course, along with her continued studies, lit a flame in Ngwu — a flame that led her to create her upcoming animated short film “MMANWU,” a horror-folklore story set in modern Nigeria. 




Lily Smith

Interviewed by: 
Anna Zindren 

Photos by:
Brynn Crandall 

Styling by: 
Emma Highfield

Lily Smith is a visual artist whose work examines the psychological dimensions of girlhood, digital excess, and the grotesque choreography of femininity. Her practice functions like a teenage bedroom, serving as a cluttered psychic space where oil paint tangles with the speed, chaos, and emotional static of the internet.

Smith’s work is deliberately overstimulating, drawing on her experience growing up surrounded by a constant stream of images. Through elements such as body horror, camp, silicone shine, and hyper-sweet nostalgia, she reflects the horrific experience of performing femininity under the permanent gaze of the internet. 





LeShay Andrewin

Interviewed  by: 
Sommer Wagen 

Photos by: 
Alicia Moore 

Styling by:
Lacey Thompson

Last year was an eventful one for LeShay Andrewin. After starting their own Black-centered book club, AfroReads Collective, they were tapped by rapper Noname to facilitate the Twin Cities chapter of her book club. Then they blew up on Substack and used that momentum to launch their own literary magazine, Homies, providing a platform for young Black creatives like themself from all around the world.






Masanari Kawahara
川原正也

Interviewed by: 
Sofia Esparza

Photos by: 
Eliana Avila
Cicely Bass 
Anna Zindren Born in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1968, Masanari Kawahara is a performance artist and educator living in the Twin Cities. He is the director of Naked Stages, an early-career performance fellowship run out of Pillsbury House + Theatre, a resident teaching artist at Pillsbury House + Theatre, a Playwrights’ Center McKnight Theatre Artist Fellow, and an associate artist at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre.

Kawahara focuses primarily on movement performance with Butoh dance and puppetry. At Naked Stages, he works with early-career starters to shape their artistic truth. He talks about Butoh as a form of cultural storytelling and his experience with practicing mindfulness through art. 







Teréz Iaconvino 

Interviewed by: 
Jane Crabtree

Photos by: 
Alicia Moore
Courtesy of UMN Artist, curator, and educator Teréz Iaconvino’s work sits at the intersection of creative practice, mentorship, and social study. Raised in upstate New York, Iacovino made her way to Minneapolis to pursue an MFA in studio art. Now, as director of the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota, she educates and collaborates with an approach grounded in lived experience. 

Her most recent large-scale project, titled “Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora,” which she co-curated with artist and cultural worker José López Serra, was housed by the Katherine E. Nash Gallery from September to December of 2025 and featured more than forty artists highlighting the complexities of the Puerto Rican diaspora. Iacovino’s project was both professional and personal, accompanied by a reconnection to her own Puerto Rican heritage. 




Vintage Revival

Interviewed by: 
Sophia Arndt 

Photos by: 
Emma Highfield 
Anna Zindren

Models: 
Ayrion Gordon-Jackson
Quentin Dean Isabella Ardell, Ethan Graul, and Jesse Saybe opened their first jointly-owned storefront, Vintage Revival, in October 2025, before any of them had turned 25. Having garnered a significant following on social media for her vintage clothing content, Ardell is looking to bring the vintage scene to her hometown of Stillwater, Minnesota, and provide a place for creativity and sustainability in the community.

Launch Party - June 18th, 2026 7-9PM - Landmark Gallery






Contact and CVs                                                                                                                                                                            



Buttercup Magazine 





Buttercup Magazine is a Twin Cities-based print-only magazine covering rising and unique artists, writers, designers, and tastemakers across the Midwest.

Buttercup serves as a curated, tangible archive dedicated to celebrating the people and movements driving the new wave of Midwestern creativity.
 
In an era of ephemeral digital feeds, we commit to the permanence of print, creating a lasting record that honors and elevates the work it features.

Contact Information: 
Instagram: @buttercupmagazine
Email: buttercupmag@gmail.com

Interested in working with us as a freelance writer/photographer/stylist? Fill out this form

Interested in coverage for your work/ submitting a project for publication/working with us? email buttercupmag@gmail.com

Issue 002 Staff 

Editors-In-Cheif
Anna Zindren



Ella Dalby
Associate Editor-In-Chief
Bea Healey

Creative Directors  Cicely Bass 



Jane Crabtree 

Managing Editor 
Sofia Esparza 

Publication DesignerLayla McCloskey

Graphic Designer 
Erick Morales-Hernandez

Head Stylist 

Emma Highfield
Art DirectorsElijah Elliott



Alicia Moore

Media Marketing Coordinator 
Debora Abadi


Contributors

Photographers








Stylists



Interviewers






Models













Special Thanks
 Eliana Avila
Annie Chu
Brynn Crandall 
Emma Highfield
Maksym Khutorianskyi 
Tove Moen 
Scotty Monten


Jake Everswick 
Lacey Thompson


Sophia Arndt
Ayrion Gordon-Jackson
Kaia Ludtke
Adasha Moser
Sommer Wagen


Monroe Chumklang
Quentin Dean
Ramiro Duran
Ayrion Gordon-Jackson
Hunter Hagedorn
Estelle Harsh
Erin Kane
Anna Keith
Myla Lasley
Yousef Madkour
Mary Turner
Kiona


The Cat and The Cobra 









Last Updated 24.10.31



Issue 001
On Creative Community and Artful Resistance

Our first issue, a 120-page A5 magazine featuring 11 insightful interviews and personal reflections from artists, writers, and community-oriented businesses, centered around the theme of Creative Community and Artful Resistance.




Maksym Kutorianski

Written by: Maya Modelli
Photos by: Cole Hanson





Barbalynn’s Vintage 

Written by: Sofia Esparza
Photos by: Summer Rabold + Kiera Rietz



Written by: Bea Healey
Photos by: Ella Larson



Como Backdoor

Written by: Shay Scanalan
Photos by:


Jay Webb

Written by: Debora Abadi
Photos by: Maya Modelli



Katheryne Fierros

Written by: Sofia Esparza
Photos by: Summer Rabold


Randall Xiao

Written by: Ben Bratner



Project by Summer Rabold


Written by: Ben Bratner 

Artworks by: June Bratner



Chromatic Vintage

Written by: Shay Scanalan

Photos by: Annie Chu, Maya Modelli, Elijah Elliott, Neya Veagonpal, Kiera Rietz




Launch Party





Special thanks to After Hours Gallery and Skateshop for welcoming us into their space to host a formal gallery event and opening highlighting the physical works and items that built the world the gallery centers on. Through this launch event, we were able to host our friends, family, collaborators, and even strangers to celebrate the first issue of Buttercup. 
















Buttercup Magazine