My name is Michael Sapenoff, I’m a writer, artist, and English teacher from Overland Park, Kansas. Yellow Letter K is my artistic venture, and the place where I explore and cultivate any creative output. Yellow Letter K specializes in prints, zines, original art, and publications. The name may seem a bit abstract, but it means a lot to me. On D-Day in 1944, my grandfather, who was a B-24 bombardier, was shot down over Nazi-occupied Romania in a plane that was identified by the tail marking “yellow letter k”. As a young Jewish man, I can only imagine the thoughts that were going through his head as he bailed out of the plane, and eventually found himself in a POW camp.

But that alone doesn’t describe the name. Instead, the name is inspired by the man my grandfather was, and the creativity that seemed to permeate his life. Throughout his time serving in WWII, a period that took him through North Africa and Italy, he carried a sketchbook and captured the things he saw on that wild journey that took him from Brooklyn, NY to the other side of the world. This desire to capture the everyday in a visual form, and the desire to pursue creative ventures no matter the difficulty is the driving force of Yellow Letter K.

Simply put, this website is a portfolio, but it’s also more than that. It’s a place where I can experiment, share, connect, and express myself. I’ve been running Yellow Letter K for a while now, and in the past, it definitely got out of hand (case in point, when I considered having a music-producing branch of Yellow Letter K Media [what do I know about producing music?]). My grandfather was a lot of things, but most of all, he was laid back. I don’t want media companies or design studios, I want a laid back place to post the ways that I capture the everyday elements of the human condition in art.

So what does the future hold? I’m not sure. I would love to one day turn this in to a collective, where I can feature different artists and their products. But for now, I’m perfectly content with this just being me. I plan on releasing several publications, prints, zines, and original pieces throughout the year. Most of all, I hope you enjoy what Yellow Letter K has to offer.

If you would like to buy any artwork from Yellow Letter K’s online store, click here.