I am back from the environs of Baltimore where I was showing my art and doing lots of socializing at Balticon, the region's yearly science fiction convention. And I have pleasant news to report. I sold four out of the seven pictures I displayed there, and two prints as well. I sold two of the larger paintings left over from my 2005 Massachusetts show, "Autumn Galaxy" and "Universe Detector." These can be viewed in my Electron entries for September and October 2005, if your memory needs refreshing. "Autumn Galaxy" was especially popular and I received many positive responses from fans who saw it. I will be selling prints of it if anyone wants one. I also sold "Chaotic Parabolas" which was shown on the previous entry, and "Chrome Probe," which I painted last November. The money was quite nice.

I showed "Deco Fantasy," also painted last fall, but because I had a high price on it, I didn't sell it. I didn't want to sell it very much, because I intend to offer this one to "fine art" galleries or juried shows. My intention is to make "crossover" art that appeals to both the select circle of science fiction fans as well as the larger audience of "gallery" type fine art. You will not see me doing any dragons or winged kittens or Japanese warriors, which are stock figures of current fantasy art. Not that I wouldn't do one of those if someone paid me huge bucks, but why pay me to do it when someone else will do it on the cheap. Currently the American fantasy/comics imagination has been outsourced to the Far East, and just about anything Japanese is wildly popular.

On Saturday afternoon I gave a presentation on how to depict light-effects in art, using colored pencils for my medium. I showed my audience how Thomas Kinkade, the trademarked "Painter of Light," does his shimmery soft glow. I gave away the secrets of how to portray "them damn lampposts" which do so much for a painting, no matter what else is in it. How about a winged kitten dressed in Japanese armor leaning against a lamppost, topped with a glowing lantern, with pink flowers…

Three of my Friendly Mathematicians and two of my Friendly Scientists were there, and I got to sit down with them and do some scribbling and questioning. I am always glad when I get to talk with a "Real Live Physicist" although time at a convention is limited. Much of my convention time is spent marketing my art and persuading people to look at it and buy it. The rest of my convention time is spent socializing and eating at restaurants. I can only do this so often, because it is tiring. I used to go to a lot more conventions, but I don't have the time nor the quantity of art to support that schedule any more.

Now it's back to the drawing board for ongoing projects (graphic novel, imaginary world architecture), commissions and portraits, and more of that colorful, appealing geometric space art that succeeds so efficiently at attracting both fans and non-fans. And my math book is open again to the first chapter on tangents and limits, so I am starting on Real Live Calculus now.

Posted at 2:55 am | link