Spectrum Fantastic Art Live, 2014

Living in the Kansas City area, I have heard about Spectrum Fantastic Art Live over the last couple of year, but had not attended.  It was always one of those things I had wanted to do, but I just did not make the time.  This year I decided to go and I am very glad I did.  For anyone living in the Kansas City area, it is a great opportunity to meet and talk with some very wonderful artists.  There are many big names in attendance and you’ll recognize images from popular books, magazines, and games.  There are also many up and coming artists, whose work is just as good.

In addition to talking with many people, I made several purchases.  (I have two serious weaknesses: one, I buy more books than I can read; two, I love fantasy art.)  The prices at the show are reasonable and I like being able to giving the money directly to the artist as well as get everything signed while hearing about the process the artists went through in making the work.

If you are in the area, I seriously recommend stopping by on Sunday (11 May 2014).  Take mom out for Mother’s Day and tempt her with some excellent art!  I will be making this an annual event for myself.

Here are links to some of the things I bought today:

Dan Dos Santos:

Dan was great to talk with and he has free wallpaper and tutorials on his site.  I would have bought more from him, but I only have so much wall space.  I know I will get more later!  Definitely check out his site and if you get a chance to met him, talk to him a while.  He is into the art as much as anyone else there and he was interested in what I had already purchased as he planned to go check in with some of those artists.

 

Dave Dorman

Dave is from Chicago and I spoke with him a bit about the Con’s in his home town.  I’m looking forward to dropping in later this year in hopes to catch him there.  For the “Pi” print, I got number 2 of 10.

 

Mark Poole

I initially spoke with Mark’s Daughter, who was kind enough to set aside these two prints for me and I am glad she did; otherwise they would have been gone by the time I made my first round though the floor.  When I went back later, I spoke with Mark for a while and he suggested a couple of Con’s where writers do very well.  I can see more road trips in my future (and more of Mark’s art work on my walls.)
  

 

Crystal Sully Illustration

Crystal has several very good pieces.  I liked the battered look of Sandor Clegane.

 

 Steve Argyle

I talked with Steve for a while (we even talked about studying chemistry; he didn’t like org quite as much as I did).  However, I am glad he ended up working with computers and graphic art.  He has a large number of pieces I could have bought, but I ended up with Chandra MIXI Avatar.

 

And there were many, many other artist that I would have loved to purchase something from.  Check out the List of Exhibitors and if you can stop in on Sunday, make the effort.  Otherwise, look for Spectrum next year.  It is definitely something not to miss.