Our Team
Opaque is more than a printshop. We are a collective of artists, organizers, and dreamers who love our city and neighborhood. We strive to contribute to our physical and cultural communities, and want to preserve the punk, DIY ethic that got us where we are today.
We mourn the loss and commodification of subcultures and communities that offer alternatives to the status quo, and seek to build something new out of their ashes.
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Lizzy is passionate about applying the principles of permaculture and biomimicry to build healthier and more sustainable systems, processes and organizations (and really beautiful gardens) through political education, community building, and resource network creation. In addition to being a founding member of Opaque, she also co-founded Modest Haus – a housing collective in Allston, Massachusetts, and the Deep Abiding Love Collective (St. Louis / Boston), a national popular education and training collective that focused on direct action training, campaign strategy assistance, creative action design, and movement infrastructure support. She has worked in nonprofit management for over a decade, most recently as the Director of Membership and Strategic Engagement for Dream.org.
Lizzy currently lives in St. Louis, MO where she maintains a suburban homestead with her partner Jared and their daughter.
Lizzy Efferus
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Jared is a multi-disciplinary artist whose style is eclectic and versatile. He first cut his teeth as a screen printer in high school art class, when restlessness drove him to utilize the screen printing equipment in the classroom to make his first band t-shirts to be sold at local DIY punk shows. The bands in his community liked the work he did and hired him to make their band merch as well, and that got his business started.
His entire career is based on self determination with some key mentorship from Julio Patino, an OG graffiti writer from New York City and pioneer in streetwear clothing. With the influence from his mentor and the exploding streetwear movement of the 90’s and Y2K, Jared designed his first clothing brand called Heart of Gold. The brand was centered around ethical production and sustainability, utilizing water-based and discharge techniques that were still in their early forms at the time. This came to be the cornerstone of his style and unique offerings.
During the exploration of streetwear and hip hop, Jared became obsessed with graffiti. He would spend his long sleepless nights fighting insomnia by embellishing freight and subway trains with his signature nickname. He is now in one of the most infamous freight crews and continues to crush trains with his friends and crew with innovative and original style.
Jared moved to St. Louis in 2015 armed with a brand new EP recorded at the infamous Pine Crust studios ( TORCHE, Capsule, Shitstorm, and many more ). Jared’s band STAGHORN gained popularity in the local scene and went on to produce several more albums and tour much of the world.
Though his pursuit of anonymity has led to little public recognition for his work, he is recognized for his thorough and detailed study and approach to everything he does, from music and graffiti to screen printing by his peers and community.
Jared Efferus
MARINA MAY SCHLEICHER
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b. 1994, St. Louis, Missouri) is a writer, curator, communications strategist, and semi-professional talker based in St. Louis.
She earned a B.A. in Art History and Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis and began her career as a Curatorial Assistant at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, where she developed an obsession with expanding access to contemporary art through approachable language and community engagement—an approach that continues to shape her work.
In 2017, she co-founded Silver Space, an independent editorial platform focused on contemporary art and culture. After receiving The Luminary’s Futures Fund grant in 2019, she launched cool WIP with artist Nick Schleicher, a podcast featuring conversations with artists, curators, and cultural organizers about creative practice and the often-unseen labor that sustains cultural communities. In 2023, she rebranded Silver Space under the cool WIP name, creating a platform that houses the podcast alongside an archive of essays, interviews, and criticism.
From 2018 to 2024, May Schleicher served as Gallery Director at Kodner Gallery, where she organized exhibitions, developed public programming, and led marketing and communications. She was also a member of the artist-run space Monaco from 2021 until its closure in 2024. Her work consistently emphasizes collaboration and connection across artists, institutions, collectors, and audiences. Her curatorial work at Opaque centers on artist collaboration, neighborhood engagement, and expanding access to new audiences.
She lives in St. Louis, specifically the Carondelet-Patch neighborhood, with her husband, artist Nick Schleicher, and their daughter, Phoebe. Her writing and projects can be found at coolwipofficial.com and on Instagram at @marinamae_west and @coolwip_official.
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Wesley Wilcox is a screen printing apprentice with 2+ years experience under Jared Efferus. At Opaque, he has helped guide the shape and direction of the collective as a founding member. Wesley also leads the Opaque Street Team for physical promotion.
Wesley Wilcox
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Born and raised in St. Louis, Matthew committed to South City and the artists that inhabit it. His passion is inspiring creatives to reach their full potential, and working to remove technical hurdles that may lay in their way. With 10+ years as a professional photographer (skateboarding, editorial, print, portrait & commercial photography), Matthew is well equipped to assist in the production and reproduction of fine and commercial works. He serves as Opaque Collective’s Official Photographer and Digital Print Lead.
Matthew Pfaff
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Kayla Richards is a screen printer, graphic designer, illustrator, and the founder of Bird-Mad Girl Press. With two decades of technical Adobe mastery and a decade of specialized experience in commercial print production, her work exists at the rare intersection of flawless prepress engineering and profound cultural storytelling.
Drawing inspiration from her resilient ancestors, Kayla stepped out of the extractive world of commercial employment and fully into her sovereign mandate. Today, with the support of Opaque Collective, she leads Bird-Mad Girl Press, an independent printing operation dedicated to the power of the printed image. Through BMGP, Kayla creates hand-printed works, fine art, and apparel that celebrate femme expression, uplift the marginalized, and channel the raw energy of collective survival into unapologetic joy. She is not just making art; she is resurrecting a family legacy, proving that a true calling can survive generations, cross oceans, and ultimately find its way home.
Kayla Richards
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John Cowick is the Head of Production of Bird-Mad Girl Press. He is the engine, the mechanic, and the muscle of the operation. John brings 13 years of commercial screen printing experience to BMGP. In fact, he honed his craft at the exact same commercial shop where he and Kayla first met in 2019. His relentless work ethic was forged in the brutal heat of the service industry, having spent years grinding in kitchens across the St. Louis restaurant scene.
John has deep, gritty roots in local DIY punk music, notably playing in the St. Louis band Atomic Betty. He knows the sweaty, loud, unapologetic reality of the local underground, which perfectly aligns with the demographic BMGP serves at local events and venues. That DIY punk ethos translates directly to his resourcefulness, but it is balanced by his unexpected center: John is studied in Eastern philosophies. This background brings a grounded, highly focused mindfulness to the inherently chaotic and physically demanding labor of screen printing. He finds the rhythm in the squeegee pull and maintains a calm, analytical approach even when the process fights back.
He bridges the gap between raw hustle and calculated precision. John doesn't just execute a print; he engineers the entire physical environment of the press. Screen printing is a stubborn medium, but John treats every mechanical hurdle as a puzzle to be solved with patience and ingenuity. Whether he is conceptualizing new ways to print on larger textiles or building custom modular equipment from scratch like the shop's vacuum table, he treats the craft as a continuous practice of learning and adaptation.
Ultimately, John is the grounding force that turns Bird-Mad Girl Press’s ambitious visions into tangible art. His unique combination of punk resourcefulness, service-industry grit, creative eye, and mindful intentionality makes him the perfect mechanical heartbeat for a press.