About Us

The work featured on this website comes from a collective of artists who create fine-art photography, photographic books, children’s books and collage art. The collective began as an offshoot of Peoples & Company Communications, which for many years provided corporate communications consulting and business communication training.

What started as a side project has grown into a creative collaboration. If you’re interested in contacting any member of our team, please send a note through the Contact page linked at the top of this site.



Curt Peoples

Photographer and Book Developer

Born with rambling feet, American-Canadian Curt Peoples has spent years traveling widely for both work and pleasure — always with a camera in hand. He has visited 49 U.S. states, all 10 Canadian provinces, and 39 countries.

With a background in publishing and corporate communications, Curt uses his talent for clear expression to capture the spirts of different places and reveal their unique character. His interest in children’s books grew from a desire to help young readers understand that he and millions of adults are counting on them to restore the great outdoors of our fragile planet — one tree, one lake, and one butterfly at a time.

Nancy Prendergast

Children’s Book Author

Nancy Prendergast has worked for over 40 years in education after earning her Masters in Linguistics and Literature from Northern Illinois University and a PhD in International Education from Chicago's Loyola University. She wrote poems for her own children for many years, and after becoming a grandmother of identical twin girls, she started writing even more! Of all the time she has spent in colleges and universities, being a Nana and reading to her granddaughters has been the best job of her life.

Colleen Cardoza

Illustrator

Colleen Cardoza is a Chicago-based illustrator completing her BFA in Illustration at Parsons School of Design (Class of 2026). She works in a wide range of media, including ink, watercolor, and other painting mediums.

                                  

Laura Arroz

Illustrator

Laura Arroz is a Brazilian illustrator based in Barcelona. She specializes in illustration, book design, comics, and murals. You can view her portfolio and get in touch through her website.

                                  

Merrilee Hepler

Collage Artist

Merrilee Hepler is a Chicago area artist inspired by the emotional and personal moments that shape our lives. Her multidisciplinary work — combining painting, drawing, collage, printmaking and photography — expands the idea of portraiture. Themes of learning, loss, fear and joy run throughout her work, inviting reflection on the emotions that connect us all.

Her art has appeared in juried exhibitions at the Highland Park Art Center in 2020, 2022, and 2024, in the publication Collage in the House in 2022, at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York City, as a part of Anne Wilson's: Errant Behaviors and the MAD Drawing Room 2024 exhibition, in the East on Central art and literature publication 2024/2025 edition, and in the Chicago Collage Community's 2025 annual publication and exhibit.