Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America Party

Last night was the annual SFWA schmooze fest. Let me start by saying, Liz Gorinsky is a horrible influence. She’s made me stay out for more 3:00am breakfasts this month then I have in all the years since college. But besides the groggy wake up this morning, I had a great time.

Once again I got a few artists friends to bring in some work for a little mini display of sf/f art. This year we had Dave Palumbo, Tiffany Prothero, Bruce Jensen, Scott Altmann, John Jude Palencar, Eric Fortune, and David Grove. (Thanks again guys!)

You are spared the traditional food eating shot since I had forgotten my camera at that point. (Although the truth of the matter is, I only set up these exhibits/lectures/whatever for the excuse to have good meals with cool artists.) Here are some random photos of the evening:

TOP SET:
Jozelle, F. Paul Wilson, Gordon Van Gelder, Anna Genoese, Richard Curtis, Ellen Asher, Michale Swanwick, Jim Frenkle.

SECOND SET:
• Lots of Tor peeps. I think just about every department is represented here: Steven, Melissa, Kristin, Sara, Melanie, Cindy, and Liz.
• Tor authors David Keck and Kate Braillier.
• Liz Gorinski and Diana Fox.
• Jannie Shea and Andrea Senchy -- the people that make the Chesleys and many, many convention art shows happen.

BOTTOM SET:
Some of the artists in attendance: Arkady Roytman, Tiffany Prothero, Dave Palumbo, Doug Beekman, Scott Altmann, Tony Palumbo.

Race Brook Lodge

I’m back from the awesome Race Brook Lodge. Twenty-plus artists friends and I were there for a week -- some working on assignments, others working on personal projects, and then there was me, doing absolutely nothing but hanging out, eating, and sleeping.

Sadly, the waterfall was sans water, but a lovely hike nonetheless. The pizza was amazing...until Baba Louie's burned down. (I swear we had nothing to do with it.) And teaching whiffle ball to the Hungarian artist duo Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai was more amusing than the actual game. It also seems that I am an excellent first-game bowler but suck at any subsequent rounds.

Unfortunately I can’t show any of the work that was done since some clients are more sensitive about that than others. But a quick run down of a few of the projects:

Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell were working on their next calendar. This time they will be telling a visual story throughout the months.

Tony Palumbo was working on a few “sword” cards for a tarot deck that he, Julie, Boris, and Dave Palumbo are all collaborating on. (It was fun to hear Julie talk about being in the art director’s seat on the project.) The set is being published three cards at a time in Heavy Metal magazine, starting now, and will take three years to complete.

Dan Dos Santos was working on a Tor cover, the sequel to Dark Warrior Rising. When the painting is done I’ll post a few shots in progress.

Greg Manchess was finessing a few sketches of Egyptian pharaohs for National Geographic -- a cover plus two large scale interior paintings that will run in the February edition. (Progressions on that, once published.)

The only bit of work that I did was to go through a few Spectrum books and start making a first pass stab at curating the next Spectrum exhibit. Based on the post-it notes, we are not in for an easy ride. Somehow we’ll need to select just 150ish works of art out of four editions.

Everyone else was working on private commissions and personal works. Some stunning pieces that I am very much looking forward to seeing done.

Our "Free To Be You and Me" photo::

TOP: Dave Palumbo, Ben Foster, Dave Seeley, Scot Brundage.

MIDDLE: Dan Dos Santos, Donato Giancola, Christine, Tiffany Prothero, me, Rebecca Guay.

BOTTOM STANDING: Steph Laberis, Wesley Allsbrook, Greg Manchess, Tony Palumbo, Julie Bell.

KNEELING: Arkady Roytman, Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai .

THERE IN SPIRIT but sensible to get out before people started climbing on the rafters: Boris Vallejo, Steven Stroud, Lars Grant-West, Cyril Van Der Hagen, Giancola’s Carrie, Naomi, and Cecilia, and Dos Santos’ Chris and Uno.