ConQuesT Photos of My Art Display

I've been having a great time at ConQuesT 46 in Kansas City. I'm not sure I've ever had a show where I sold more--at least, not more paper sculpture! Here's a look at my display before the buyers descended.

You can sort of see the Dealers' Room being set up behind these two panels. 

Here's the third panel. ConQuesT Art Show panels are 2 feet wide.

I'm scheduled for ten program items at ConQuesT, including a demonstration called "How I Make Paper Sculpture," on Sunday. It will include a PowerPoint slide show and hands-on paper sculpture experience for attendees.

Also on Sunday (immediately after the demonstration), I'll do a reading. A bunch of people have signed up--I hope to see them there! (And I hope my voice holds up!).

Sunday afternoon will be the first time anyone outside my writers' group has heard Chapter One of my novel Dogged Pursuit. It's an sf novel about a genetically-engineered police dog who must prove he is sapient (and thus worthy of freedom) by helping to solve an important case before the Director of the project that made him and his Packmates can "recall" and destroy the "batch that turned out too smart." The Director claims they are "defective," because he hopes to keep control over the lucrative canine forensic tools the Project has created--something he can't do if they are declared "sapient" and set free. I hope my listeners enjoy Chapter One!

In the next few months, I'll be collaborating with my friend and fellow artist Lucy A. Synk, to create character images of my XK9 protagonist Rex, and his friends and colleagues from Chayko IV Habitat Space Station. Followers of my blog will be the first to see them!

 IMAGES: the photos in today's blog are by me, Jan S. Gephardt, of my artwork display at the ConQuesT 46 art show. You may re-post these images if you will please not alter them, and give an attribution and a link back to this site.

Look for me and my artwork at these three Midwestern SF Conventions in May and June!

Now that I'm home and able to access my finished artwork again, I have accepted guest invitations from some of the science fiction conventions in the region.  Please come to these fine conventions and look me up!

Demicon 25 
Des Moines IA, May 2-4, 2014

Demicon 25 will be held at the Holiday Inn Northwest.

The theme of this year's annual science fiction, fantasy and gaming convention is Hi-Yo, Silver!  Celebrate Away!

Demicon 25 will be held at the Holiday Inn Northwest, 4800 Merle Hay Road, Des Moines, IA.  There will be an Art Show (I'll have work there), Dealers Room, Gaming, music, parties, programming, and much more.

I'm really looking forward to attending this convention, which I haven't had a chance to attend for several years.  I have only good memories of Demicons past.  Watch for me on programming!

ConQuesT 45
Kansas City MO, May 23-25
The theme of ConQuesT 45 is ConQuesT Noir.
The longest-running SF convention in the Midwest is moving to a beautiful new hotel in downtown Kansas City, with more room than ever for its many popular and enjoyable events. I'm not the Art Show Director this year, so I'll have time to be on programming!

KC Downtown Marriott: new home of ConQuesT!

Of course I'll have artwork in the Art Show, and I hope to be on several panels--perhaps also a paper sculpture demonstration, or maybe even a reading from my new SF novel Dogged Pursuit.
 
ConQuesT 45 will be held at the elegant and spacious Kansas City Marriott Downtown. 200 W. 12th Street, Kansas City, MO.

This is my hometown convention, put on by the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society (KaCSFFS), of which I am the Communications Officer and a longtime member.

Soonercon 23
Oklahoma City,

OK, June 27-29, 2014
(okay, technically it's in Midwest City, OK).

Reed Convention Center again hosts Soonercon.

Soonercon bills itself as Oklahoma's oldest and longest-running fan-run extravaganza. And it is! My family and I have a long and pleasant association with Soonercon, and we're looking very much forward to attending this convention again.

Housed at the beautiful and convenient Reed Convention Center, 5800 Will Rogers Road, Midwest City, OK, Soonercon always boasts a large number of interesting guests and panelists, and many events and activities. I've signed up for programming, and also plan to be in the Art Show.

Turn of the Semester, Turn of the Page

Windblown (2010) is one of my first "autumn"
paper sculptures.

Fall semester has begun.  Start of the school year, start of a new cycle: since I was a tiny child, the start of another school year has functionally been my “new year.”

But it’s been several years since I last began a new fall semester as a classroom practitioner.  I will always be a teacher in my heart, but the life of working in the classroom is no longer my life. 

Today I’m most invested in the other major aspects of my life: professionally, as an artist and a writer; personally, as part of a vibrant, multigenerational (and multi-species) family.

Purple Clematis is one of the paper
sculptures I finished in 2013.

So, while my “intuitive cycle” is (probably forever) tuned to the end of summer as the time of “new beginnings,” this particular year’s new beginning marks a change of direction for this blog.

For the past few years I’ve been scattering my attention between two personal blogs—this one, as “Artdog Educator,” and another one that’s been devoted strictly to my visual artwork, titled “Artdog Observations.”  As anyone knows, who’s been following either one, I’ve been posting less and less frequently to both. 

That’s because I have a massive new project in my life, a science fiction/mystery novel with the working title of Dogged Pursuit.  It’s been consuming much of my attention since spring.

At the same time, I have been trying to keep up working on my artwork.  I make fine-art paper sculpture, aimed at juried shows and in hope of gallery representation. 

Nine-Part Herbal Fantasy is my most recent finished
paper sculpture. It was recently accepted into a show!

With so many creative projects now moving forward, however, I need to re-balance the load.  This season of new beginnings seems a good time to combine both of my former blogs under one title, “Jan S. Gephardt’s Artdog Adventures.”   

As all creative people know, it’s hard to compartmentalize—worse, it’s often counter-productive to try.  Things one learns in one sphere inexplicably turn out to relate to others.  My own creative life is like a Venn diagram with about a thousand circles—and they all converge in my art and writing. 

I sometimes foster dogs for
Great Plains SPCA.

"Artdog Adventures" will explore all of it—the artwork, the writing, the background material, the interesting stuff that I discover, books I read, current events, and also my ongoing thoughts about social issues and education reform when it seems appropriate.  

Because they inform my creative work, I also will undoubtedly include thoughts on the environment, animal welfare, and most especially dogs.  Because I am involved in science fiction fandom, you’ll probably also get comments on that sphere, from time to time.

I hope you'll be interested to join me on my creative journey, and share the "Artdog's" adventures.