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Highlights of Renovation (Worldcon)
I was head of the Art @ Renovation project at Renovation, which included a lot of re-thinking about art at Worldcon, a bunch of outreach to artists and art directors, a definitive effort to step up the quality of art-related programming at the con as well as the art show, efforts to incorporate art images into the con space throughout the con, a gorgeous Artist Showcase produced by Sara Felix and Colin Harris, and an Art Night that included an evening of live demos, a Meet the Artists event in the Art Show, and the Chesley Awards. I was not able to attend any of the programming I had planned except the items I was on (none of which were art-related), and thus did not meet most of the artists we had at the con. I was very stressed for the first half of the con, and exhausted afterwards, partly because we moved across the country just over a week before the con and many balls were dropped due to that as well as other factors. None-the-less, there were highlights.
The following weekend was Bubonicon here in Albuquerque, where we got to see a number of folks again, namely Brad Lyau, Paul Cornell and his wife Caroline, John Picacio, Steven Gould, and George R.R. Martin, PLUS we got to spend time with the always-delightful Steven and Denise Leigh, PLUS we met a few new people, all in a much quieter, more relaxed setting.
I believe I got a really cute picture of Paul being silly with Rosie, but I haven't the faintest idea where my camera is right now, so I'll have to post that later. The chaos of unpacking strikes again!
- Seeing Howard and Sandra Tayler during set-up and throughout the con. Howard came over to say hi on Tuesday while Brian and I were prepping Artist packets by the Art Show and even did a quick sketch of Rosie eating cake on her birthday, and I was pleased to pick up a signed copy of Sandra's kids book, Hold on to Your Horses.
- Visiting a little with Scalzi outside the 2nd floor cafe in the Atlantis and getting introduced to Steven Gould, who lives here in Albuquerque, and of whose works Brian is quite a fan (I haven't read them, but since we just unpacked Brian's collection, I will soon).
- Brian and Rosie and I having dinner with my college friend Peer Dudda and his friend Simon on Wednesday night. (The quiet before the chaos.)
- Cory Doctorow coming up to me in the hallway to ask, "Where's the veal?" and then follow me into the consuite to play with the baby for a while (unfortunately she was tired and a little overwhelmed so she wasn't quite her usual charming self, but it was still nice).
- Going around the breakfast restaurant (the Purple parrot) with Rosie and visiting with Gay Haldeman, Jim Frenkel and others; Rosie getting to meet Robert Silverberg (not one who is big on babies), Joe Haldeman (who, on the other hand, likes babies quite a lot), and George R. R. Martin (who expressed an advance welcome to New Mexico; he lives in Santa Fe).
- Lillie Wells offering to do last-minute shopping for Art Night (not to mention how she showed up with a setup crew and made sure the Art Night demos actually happened).
- Playing with Rosie on the hotel bed with Brian (which resulted in gales of giggles from her), and how happy she was on her birthday.
- The "SF We Love by Writers of Color" panel I was on, which I dare say went really well. It was 10 am Friday and I hadn't had much sleep, but we were all helping each other remember things and many fine writers and works were mentioned, including some I wrote down to add to my "to read" list. (I will try to post notes from that panel separately, though given how long it's taken me to post this, I've no idea when that might be.)
- Getting into a great conversation with fellow panelist Brad Lyau right after that panel, and taking that conversation to the green room, where I introduced Brad to Brother Guy Consolmagno (whom it is always a delight to see). Also, after Brother Guy indicated he was hoping Paul Cornell would stop by there before their dialogue, I tweeted that to Paul and he actually saw that tweet and found us in the green room in time, which was just bloody good timing and made me feel all accomplished.
- Hearing a young teen say "This is cool" about the coloring book I'd put together with art donations from pro artists Lee Moyer, John Gray, Howard Tayler, and Art Goh Boris Vallejo.
- Having a young woman stop me to say thank you for the afore-mentioned "SF We Love by Writers of Color" panel, indicating she now had a long list of items she was looking forward to reading from the panel.
- Going into Childcare to try to put Rosie down for a nap and having her refuse to go to sleep because she really wanted to play with the other 1-year-old who was there, and deciding to just sit and play with them for a while instead of leaving her there and trying to do something else. Lovely quiet time watching the kiddo be social with a peer.
- Having someone come up to us in the hall to say, "Neil Gaiman claims to have the cutest baby ever, but I think he's wrong. That is the cutest baby in the world." (I had included a quote from Neil in the program description of Rosie's birthday party: "ARG! CUTEST BABY EVER!") --It made her day when we told her Rosie was the baby Neil was talking about.
- Hanging around in the London in 2014 party suite with Kim Kofmel, Flick, Claire Brialey, Mike Scott, James Bacon and others while the rest prepped for their Friday night party and I mostly just watched Rosie and (gasp) was social and relaxed. (Once the party started, Brian and I went to put the baby to bed, then I stayed and slept with her while he went back to help with the party).
- Watching the people down in the Jacuzzi on the patio below us wave to Rosie as she stood at the window in her PJs greeting the day.
- Stopping by the Artist Alley Saturday to see John Picacio, who enthused about the impact the art project had had, and made me feel a lot better about Thursday.
- Enjoying a lovely dinner Saturday with Kim Kofmel and her husband, Mark Hall, after hanging around the art show trying to protect our bids (we lost the Julie Dillon we were bidding on at the last minute, but have since written to her and arranged to get a duplicate of that as well as another print sent to us).
- Getting back to the room and reading the live tweets from the Hugos, and this discovering that the very deserving James Bacon and Chris Garcia had gotten their rockets for best fanzine for Drink Tank, and being completely unsurprised to hear Chris Garcia was utterly adorable in the process. (Congrats to all the winners, of course.)
- Going *home* to Albuquerque after everything... (and unpacking our cute bronze of the monkey god by Vincent Villafranca, print by Picacio, and a couple other pieces of art, including a carved wooden dinosaur jigsaw puzzle for Rosie...)
The following weekend was Bubonicon here in Albuquerque, where we got to see a number of folks again, namely Brad Lyau, Paul Cornell and his wife Caroline, John Picacio, Steven Gould, and George R.R. Martin, PLUS we got to spend time with the always-delightful Steven and Denise Leigh, PLUS we met a few new people, all in a much quieter, more relaxed setting.
I believe I got a really cute picture of Paul being silly with Rosie, but I haven't the faintest idea where my camera is right now, so I'll have to post that later. The chaos of unpacking strikes again!
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Chris
who may have just coined a new word...
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