Fantasy Fans Converge Here...

Have you heard about CONvergence but never gone? I run into that from time to time, from fans on the outside of Fandom. What is fandom? It's the gathering of fans of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Tonight my keyword is gather, so of course I'm trying to find a way to convince you to come to CONvergence in Bloomington, MN, this Fourth of July weekend.

What is CONvergence? It's four fun filled days with people who think a lot like you do. If you've watched the Big Bang Theory, I can introduce you to characters a lot like Leonard (my husband David), Sheldon (my friend Kevin) and even the occasional Penny from across the hall. You can pre-register and save yourself $20 off the At The Door registration price, so it's $50 Until May 15, 2009.

I'll have my artwork in the Art Show of course, and my husband David will be in the Science Room much of the weekend as well. Unfortunately we will not be staying at the hotel this year, we didn't get our requestin soon enough and the hotel is sold out. The commute is pretty quick for us though, being local. At least we had the good sense to pre-register, so we'll be all set when that spectacular weekend comes! I'm even going to see about doing some demos in the art show, it sounds like fun and a chance to Play Art with an audience!!

Artemisia - Equal Rights for Men

Oh yeah, now that's what I'm talking about! More beefcake, less cheezecake. Scantily clad men, woohoo! AND cover art reviews. This is a website that a girl can really sink her artistic teeth into, seriously. I think I'll be visiting regularly, just for a little girl art power pick-me-up. You need that every once and a while as a fantasy artist. Sweeeet!

Musings on Moving

I remember when I moved into my college dorm way back when I first graduated High School. It was my first time away from home for an extended period of time, and I packed fairly lightly since I was sharing a tiny room with a roommate. Not a month went by when I realized that I missed my copy of The Lord of the Rings terribly and I asked my Dad to send them out to me as a care package, along with more of my art stuff. Fandom and fantasy art go hand-in-hand for me it seems. That's why this blog is becoming more focused on the fan part of things, with my art as an expression of that.

Believe it or not, there are fantasy artists out there who don't care a flying fig about the books, movies, and other fantasy artwork out there. They just jumped on the bandwagon and got in tight with a manufacturer and viola! Fake Fantasy Art. If you're a true fantasy fan artist, like me, you started out showing your stuff at the SF&F conventions, because you were going there anyway! But I digress. It seems that anytime I move, or begin a new phase in my life, I re-read The Lord of the Rings. Nowadays, I tend to just watch the movies again because it feeds more of my senses.

When I was painting the rooms in this house, I put my CD from The Return of the King in the boombox and went to work. Now we are just gathering the last bits from the garage at the other house and we are done! All I have to decide is how I will next experience Middle Earth in celebration of the next great adventure in my life, having just one house!

P.S. Please let me know if you like the new masthead for the blog!! ~BHB~

CafePress is Confused

I came home from watching a very cool movie on Earth Day, Rivers and Tides, to browse through my email and find an email from Cafe Press, where I have my fantasy art for sale on t-shirts, mugs, mousepads etc. It was a very strange email, which frankly didn't make much sense. Poor Cafe Press, they think they are a licensing and manufacturing company. Nope, they are merely a printing vendor for artists.

In one foolish move they changed their business model, and are going to lose buckets of money as a result. They decided that I only need to get 10% of anything they sell in the marketplace of my artwork. Nope, sorry, that's my artwork and I get to decide how much I make off of it. So I'm off to Zazzle to set up shop there instead. See Cafe Press? You are just a vendor and selling venue for me as an artist.

I LEFT traditional licensing behind me, with some very few exceptions, because of the low pay-out. And guess what? I was getting more from CafePress in a month than I did in a year at other places. Now I'll be getting those checks from Zazzle instead.

Are you a CP SK and need a pep talk? Visit the AngelCityArt Blog, cause she's been there, done that. Helloooo Zazzle!!!