Southern Tour Part 3: MTAC Devil's Dozen

Our last leg of our Southern Tour was in Nashville TN at MTAC Devil's Dozen con at the Nashville Convention Center. This was around a 4-5,000 person con that I got invited to special by a scout at Katsucon in February. It lined up perfectly with our trip so we did it! I'm glad we did because it was an grand time! The citizens of Nashville were super sweet and we made a lot of new friends! 

On Friday night the NYC Japanese punk band GELATINE played in the main events ballroom. What a show! I got some video of the last bit of their performance: 

And there were lots of fun commissions: 

We had a suprise visit from Blake's sisters and neice!

There was also a horror convention going on in the same building and it was $10.00 for anyone associated with the anime convention to get in. So on Sunday I got a pass and went to visit Adrienne King who played Alice in Friday the 13th. I gave her a print of my illustration A Dream of Jason and she was so excited and so nice she autographed a poster and posed for a photo with me. :) This was by far the best part of the Nashville trip! And we both were in Nashville for the first time! 

After that I wish we had a TARDIS. We spent a total of 27.5 hours driving back to Boston from Sunday to Monday night. The best part was that our cats weren't even mad when we got back, so we bathed in cats. :)

The whole trip was really wonderful and we are truly thankful to every one who we met or visited. I hope we can do something similar next year that involves DRAGON CON. ;)

Southern Tour Part 2: Zapow Gallery!

For our next length of tour we journeyed to Traveler's Rest, SC to visit my old art school buddy Susan Molner of SUMO Design. We hung there for the night and talked craft! It was really awesome to see Susan again after a long time and we are SUPER thankful she had us come stay with her and hang out on our tour! After Traveler's Rest, we moved onto...

Zapow Gallery in Asheville, NC! I got to meet long time internet and artist friend Steven Hall of Doodle Divas and Lauren and Matt Johnson, the gallery owners FINALLY! :) We had a lovely dinner at Chai Pani across the street from the gallery and hung out while I restocked my wall.

And there was dancing!

The gallery is a gorgeous space in downtown Asheville and houses over 90 different artists. Lauren designed the layout and built some of it herself. Her blood is literally invested in the walls of this gallery. Prior to last month, I had only seen the gallery in photos or an awesome skype video tour. 

We stocked up some new things just in time for the opening of the Space Time Trifecta show: a Star Wars, Star Trek and Dr. Who themed group gallery show on display this month and next. I also got my paws on some of Lauren, Belle Dee, Heather Kreiter and Jasmina VB's work along with a beautiful gift package from Doodle Divas! :) 

After an evening of art and conversation in Asheville, we headed over the SNOWING Smokey Mountains to Knoxville, TN where we spent a few days with Blake's family...

Next up NASHVILLE TN!

Southern Tour Part 1: Mad Monster Party

Blake and I embarked on a southern tour on March 21st through NC, SC and TN for 11 days. Our first stop was The Mad Monster Party in Charlotte, NC. Blake was particularly excited to be staying at the Blake Hotel where the convention was being held. :) We drove 18 hours to Charlotte and our drive was 20% cooler thanks to the Rainbow Dash-board.

The Mad Monster Party was an amazing time! We were so close to the celebrity room that we would often see stars taking a break in our vendor row. Gary Busey was playing with our weapon vendor neighbor's machete for a few minutes. That was a little nerve inducing. 

The highlight of the trip was meeting Bruce Campbell for 20 seconds. I gave him some art and the new Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys album from Edrie Edrie and Walter. He was very nice and shook my hand, but there were so many people waiting for photos that it was over before I could register what was happening! :)

I gave Gunnar Hansen a copy of my drawing of Dinner with Sally. He said, "I've never looked so beautiful." Fellow Zapow Artist Brad Parton of Alpha Sketch was vending too and we got to chat a bit. He has an incredible vast and diverse body of work all comprised of letter in the alphabet. I also met Max Reinhart of Skullclown and We Become Monsters and chatted a bit about resin casting. There were a lot of really amazing vendors present. Rob Ortel and his brother hung out at my booth and talked shrinky dinks for a while. I ran into Lea Thompson in the bathroom and Haruo Nakajima in the hallway. Is this real life? 

Also aptly timed, I met this man who's incredibly talented husband knitted this fucking insanely detailed sweater. He brought by his husband later to meet me. HOLY CRAP WHAT INSANE KNITTING TALENT!

Did I mention Blake was really excited to be staying at the Blake Hotel? 

Freddy Pedo Bear!

We had a grand time! On Sunday we packed up at headed for Traveler's Rest, South Carolina... but that's tomorrow's post!