Greetings all. Sorry for the silence, but I've been having some technical difficulties, namely dropping WIFI in my room. After spending a few hours trying to maintain a connection for more than a few moments I gave it up and decided to see if I had better luck today. Yeah! I'm off and running! I flew over to Altoona, PA on Wednesday. It was a day full of airports and airplanes. Thankfully, there was nothing exciting to report. When I hit Dulles Airport, I hooked up with a few partners in crime, Ben Thompson, Daren Bader, and Rob Ruppel. I've had the pleasure the meet Ben and Daren before, but this was my first opportunity to meet Rob. What a wonderful party to travel with! Funny, and fantastic conversations. After climbing off the tiny prop plane in Altoona, we wandered our way over to the Ramada hotel. While checking in, we ran into Patrick and Jeannie Wilshire (my wonderful guests for this trip) and got the invite to a late dinner, but before that I updated my cartoon coloring pages baby :) Off we went with a contingent of artists and collectors. I had a blast! I made the mistake of sitting in the middle of the table, and surrounding myself by 18 gifted and talented folks. I struggled to hear every single conversation going on... I failed miserably. But is was hysterical what happens when you only hear half of a sentence every minute or so. It's amazing how inappropriate most conversations end of sounding! After dinner, it was time to hit the sack. Thursday started off bright and early. My room is near the dumpsters, and the garbage truck makes it's daily visit at 6 am, which is 3 am on my body clock. Off to breakfast... I found that Rob was also a early riser, and we had breakfast together. I have a confession to make. I'm a huge had of Rob's work. I cut my teeth on the work of Rob, Brom, Jeff Easley, Clyde Caldwell, and Larry Elmore back in my formative D&D years.
Rob was the only one of those guys I had not met in person, and I had trouble not just being a big fan boy around him. Like so many of the artists I know, he's just a down-to-earth guy, and has some great experiences and insights to share. I've really enjoyed having the opportunity to meet him. Shortly after breakfast it was off to the Discovery Center (Heritage Center? I've heard it called both names) for set up. True I didn't have anything to set up, but I helped haul a couple of boxes, and lent my opinion about how things should be hung...when someone was foolish enough to ask. I spent most of the day harrassing Lars Grant West. Lars is a wonderful guy, and as I found, easy to distract from the task of hanging his art. That gave me the opportunity to swing by every 1/2 an hour and comment about the fact that he only had one piece hanging... Yes, I can be cruel sometimes. I was a blast getting the chance to visit everyone again. Then it was time to get to work. Portfolio reviews! Just a few this evening, but it was a nice warm-up for the rest of the weekend. Here are a few pics from set-up on thursday. Vincent Villafranca shows off some of his wearable art. Ben Thompson getting the final touches finished on his booth. Rob Ruppel resting after the very strenuous act of hanging all his art on the wall...okay, so there wasn't a lot of pieces, but the giant "butt" was the talk of the set-up. Tom Kuebler mugging behind one of his amazing creations. Dave Seeley was busy doing all kinds of serious construction projects to bring some light to his corner (hopefully Sam will recover from his injuries quickly). Dave also provided an energetic sound track for the build and was awseome. Cyril Van Der Haegen takes a little time after setting up to get some work done. More to come...