2021 Hugo Eligibility Post: Best Fan Artist

by Ariela

Woof, I had some stuff going on December through February. I’m almost out of time for this post, but I wanted to throw it out there that once again in 2021 I produced Hugo-eligible art.

The Art

The Fanfiction Diptych

Eligibility: These two companion pieces premiered on our website on December 30, 2021.

Middlegame

This licensed art based on the novel Middlegame by Seanan McGuire features an orrery surrounded by a quote from the book with the Standard Model equation arcing through the background as though written on an infinite blackboard.

Eligibility: Although this piece was not available for sale on our website until 2022, it soft-launched at DisCon III in December 2021 and was on display at the art show there.

Custom Art: Iron Man and Rhodey

Custom piece of artwork featuring a tuxedo cat named Rhodey perched on the shoulders of the Iron Man suit.

Eligibility: This piece of custom art was featured on our blog in August 2021.

Note: Due to the rules of the Hugo Awards, nominations will only be accepted for “Ariela Housman,” not for “Geek Calligraphy.”

Thank you for your consideration during this nominating season.

Commission: Iron Man and Rhodey (Cat)

by Ariela

I’ve been working on some commissions lately that are gifts, so I have not been able to talk about them publicly until the recipients got them (and then gave their permission).

The first of those that I can talk about now is this one.

The recipient is a huge fan of Iron Man. To the point that they named their cat Rhodey. So I did a portrait of their cat with Iron Man.

Image shows a black and white tuxedo cat with light green eyes perched on Iron Man’s shoulder. Iron Man has a hand raised to the cat and the cat is looking at the hand.

You can see photos of Rhodey on the recipient’s Instagram, @monkeybiziu.

This was my first time painting both a cat and a robot in watercolor, so I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. You can see photos of the painting process over on Twitter.

Ariela's First M'gillah

by Ariela

Those of you who follow us on Twitter and Instagram know that since November, Ariela has been working on a very special commission: her first M’gillat Esther, a scroll containing the entire biblical Book of Esther.

The process of writing a m’gillah is very different than my usual commission process because there are many rules in halaḥah (Jewish law) about how a holy text has to be written in order to be kosher. There was no art, but the text is long enough that it took me three full months of working diligently nearly every evening to complete it. There are 12,196 letters in the Book of Esther, which makes it ten times the length of the average ketubah text, and each of those letters needs to conform to those rules mentioned above. The scroll is written in ink on parchment, divided into 16 columns of 28 lines each (except for one special column), and written in the Spanish Portuguese traditional script.

First three columns of the Book of Esther.

Third and fourth full columns of the Book of Esther.

Twelfth through fourteenth columns of the Book of Esther. Column 13 is special and has only 22 very large words.

The clients picked up the scroll yesterday and they are really happy with it. The Book of Esther is read, from a scroll, on the holiday of Purim (or Pureem, as the Spanish Portuguese Jews usually transliterate it), which is falling this year on the evening of February 25 and the day of February 26. It is extra meaningful for my clients to have their own scroll starting this year, because the pandemic means that we cannot go to synagogue and fulfill our obligation to hear it read there.

While I hope dearly that no future clients will be reading from their scrolls under quarantine, I am hoping that this will be just the first of many scrolls that I will write.

Happy Pureem everyone!

Good Riddance 2020

by Ariela & Terri

Chibi Ariela, sporting a new, floofy green dress holds a closed champagne bottle, saying “Champagne is not the right beverage for this moment.” Chibi Terri in her regular gear proffers an uncapped bottle of bitters from which flames are spurting, saying “How about with a drop of ‘essence of dumpster fire?’”

2020 has been a trashfire by all accounts. Geek Calligraphy has been very quiet this year because, in addition to the disasters playing out on the national and global stages, Ariela suffered a significant personal loss this year and her emotional life for the bulk of the year was in shambles. She was in no condition to be producing art and Terri suddenly found herself in the position of having to provide significant emotional support to a best friend across an ocean in the middle of a global pandemic.

We’re in the process of recovery, but before we get back to producing new art prints Ariela is clearing a significant backlog of commission work. We hope to come back in 2021 with new art for you. In the meanwhile, we join the rest of the world in bidding 2020 a vehement goodbye.

There is a medieval liturgical poem that ends each stanza with the line תכל שנה וקללותיה, “let the old year die, and all of its curses with it.” That feels quite apropos at the moment. The last stanza, however, ends תחל שנה וברכותיה, “let the new year begin, and all of its blessings with it.” Here’s hoping for a better year in 2021.

Ariela's 2019 Hugo Eligibility Post: Best Fan Artist

by Ariela

I am very proud of the art I made this year.

Lady Astronaut Nouveau
Watercolor and Ink on Paper
Inspired by The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal.
Licensed by Mary Robinette Kowal.

Displayed at multiple convention art shows.

Dragon Naturalist Nouveau
Watercolor and Ink on Paper
Inspired by the Memoirs of Lady Trent series by Marie Brennan.
Licensed by Marie Brennan.

Published in The Very Official Dead Dog Art Zine.

Tech Serenity 2.0
Digital

Displayed at multiple convention art shows.

Dead Dog Art Zine 2019 Cover
Watercolor on Paper, Photography, Ink, Digital

Published in the Very Official Dead Dog Art Zine.

A Wonder(ous) Woman
Ink and Watercolor on Paper

Displayed at multiple convention art shows.

Translation of Text Blocks

1: Proverbs 31: 10 - “A valorous woman, who can find?”

2 : Proverbs 31: 20 - “Her hand is open to the needy, she reaches out to the oppressed.”

3: Proverbs 31: 25 - “She is clothed in strength and dignity; she laughs at the days to come.”

4: Proverbs 31: 26 - “She opens her mouth [and from it comes] wisdom, the law of loving kindness is on her tongue.

5: Proverbs 31: 31 - “Give her the fruit of her hands and praise her doings in the public thoroughfare.”

Hugo Category Eligibility

Once again, I am eligible for the Best Fan Artist Hugo category. If you are able to nominate for the Hugos, please nominate me as “Ariela Housman,” as the award is for the artist, not the business. (This doesn’t recognize Terri’s hard work and the way she contributed, because the world regularly ignores the value of managerial work and the Hugo awards are no exception. Any rocket which I may eventually win will be due in part to her.)

Explanatory Thingee About Hugo Category Eligibility

Some Hugo categories (Best Professional Artist, Best Fan Artist, Best Semiprozine, and Best Fanzine) are defined by whether the work done was professional, semi-professional, or fannish. The definition of what is a “professional” publication is somewhat technical. A professional publication either (1) provided at least a quarter the income of any one person or, (2) was owned or published by any entity which provided at least a quarter the income of any of its staff and/or owner.

-TheHugoAwards.org

For the purposes of Hugo categories, you are only a Professional Artist if your stuff gets published in a Professional Publication. So you can make a living, for years, entirely by selling your SF art directly to other people and still not be considered a Professional Artist for the purposes of the Hugos if your art was never included in a publication that earns according to the above criteria.

When making prints was harder and there wasn't much in the way of direct-to-fans selling outside of conventions, this made sense. Today it is ridiculous, but the rules are the rules.

A Note About Lady Astronaut Nouveau’s Consideration

Last year the Hugo Committee ruled officially that the Lady Astronaut Nouveau had not met their criteria for being “on public display” during 2018. Mary Robinette pointed out that this is very similar to what happened to the original “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” novelette, when it was struck from the Best Novellette ballot in 2013 on the grounds that an audiobook was not “published” but was rather a Dramatic Presentation. When “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” was self-published in 2013 in response to the Hugo Committee ruling, it was duly allowed on the ballot in 2014.

While Lady Astronaut Nouveau was completed in 2018, it was first put “on public display” as defined by the Hugo Committee in 2019. Following the precedent of the novelette, this means it is an eligible work from 2019.

At Dublin 2019 Terri submitted an amendment to the rules that would explicitly define public display as being fully viewable on the internet without having to pay. The amendment passed and, if it is ratified ConZealand, starting in 2021 no one will have to play weird “is it public display and therefore eligible” chicken with the Hugo Committee anymore.

Ariela's Post-Dublin 2019 Report: Mixed to Positive

by Ariela

Terri and her family are still vacationing and sightseeing, but I am back home. Her post-con report will come later, but here is mine.

I come home from my very first WorldCon glad I went, but with some significant complaints. I had some extremely joyous moments, but there were a lot of frustrations, too. I came to the con with three goals: to sell art, to meet people, and to attend the Hugo Losers Party. (No, going home with a rocket wasn’t a goal, but we’ll get to that later.) Of my three goals, I had mixed success with all three and had significant difficulty on all three counts.

Selling Art

This was our first ever show outside of the United States, and we’re not sure what was a matter of difference between European art shows vs the US and what was just plain screwing up. I’m coming out of it totally unsure if another overseas art show is a good idea. (Terri will tell you about her own conclusions.)

This was a two-building convention and Art Show was put in the secondary venue, Point Square. It got a an utterly enormous warehouse space, at least double the size of any other art show I have seen. Unfortunately, that’s mostly where the good parts end. The lighting was terrible and the room was not clean. The show wasn’t laid out in a way conducive to buying, with the Print Shop tucked away in a teeny back corner that one wouldn’t find unless you knew to look for it and the gallery show having a mostly empty panel as the first one you see when you enter. There was also next to no signage indicating that it was an art show. There were some A4 printouts saying “Art Show Entrance,” but they weren’t visible from where people queued for the panels at the venue could see them. They might have seen the art show or the signs vaguely as they were rushing to get into their panels, or as they were being herded back out of their panels, but it was not a place that would pick up casual foot traffic at all. The “Art Show Reception” was not actually held in the art show, but rather in a room off to the side, with booze and snacky foods that could not be brought into the show; there was no incentive for people to be in the show looking at the art rather than getting some of the only free comestibles in the entire convention. (Also, I got harassed at the reception, fun times! Yes, a report was made and the response team dealt with the person in question.)

From the chatter with other artists, we are not alone in our frustration over these issues, and sales were not at all what people hoped they would be. But in addition to lost money, Terri and I are stuck wondering why we didn’t make the sales we were hoping for. How much of that was due to the venue and mismanagement? Did we price too high? Is my art not a match for a European market? I just can’t know. So not only did we lose money, we didn’t get any new information out of it on which we can build. That's super frustrating.

Meeting People

This is where the convention really shone for me. I got to meet a lot of people I have only interacted with online before, and some people who were entirely new to me. I also got to spend more time with some people I have met before, and those are developing into actual friendships. Terri and I also got to talk to [REDACTED] about artistic collaboration, and while we can’t say anything about it yet, OMGWTFBBQ I AM SO EFFING EXCITED TO SHOW YOU THE ART WE WILL DO.

Did I meet everyone I wanted to meet, and did I click with everyone I did meet? Of course not. But I experienced an extremely low jerk ratio.

So where’s the downside? The downside was, again, the venue. Neither venue was a hotel themselves, and even though the convention reserved large blocks of rooms at nearby hotels, they were so appallingly expensive that comparatively few people stayed in them. So people had much further to go to get home, and if they left for dinner (there weren’t so many restaurants right nearby), they might not come back. It was hard to find a central gathering place. I would not have known any of this, but the people I did find and manage to talk to all confirmed that this year’s “BarCon” was severely lacking.

On a related note, this was also the first time I have ever had complete strangers, people who know neither me nor Terri, come up to me and say how much they like my art. It was a pretty awesome experience, but I got all awkward and tongue-tied about it. I need to practice that for the future.

Attending the Hugo Losers’ Party

The party for Hugo Finalists who did not win an award is apparently a longstanding tradition with a bit of a complicated history. While it used to be hosted by next year’s convention, in 2016, in response to Puppy nonsense, George RR Martin started hosting it again after a long hiatus, and it seems they have kinda merged into co-hosts, maybe? (This is a VERY simplified history. Who owns the party is actually an extremely complicated question.) It is apparently quite The Do. Winners are allowed in only after a significant delay, must wear ridiculous hats, and are subjected to razzing. I have heard that it was supposed to be great fun and was very excited to go.

As the interwebs reported, this year it turned out to be clusterfork. The party was held in the Guinness Storehouse, with a few shuttle buses bringing people there from the Convention Centre. But by the time my bus arrived, the fire marshal had declared the venue full and would not let anyone from the bus in. At first we were told to wait on the bus, but then the bus driver said he needed to leave, so we were all unceremoniously left on the cobblestones by the entrance in the cold. For people with mobility issues this was a particular nightmare. (And apparently there were significant access barriers once you got inside as well.)

Eventually there was a shout for finalists and their +1s to come to front of the line (I was rather surprised at how many people on the bus and in the line were neither finalists nor guests of finalists), and Terri and I got in. I thought at the time that all the finalists got in, but I found out later that this wasn’t the case.

Once we got in, I was shocked to find that the finalists were in the minority in the party, and it was mostly people who didn’t seem to have any connection with the awards at all, at least not this year’s awards. There was also a very loud live band that, while playing lovely music, made conversation nearly impossible. Overall, it was nothing like what I was expecting and I didn’t stay long.

It’s a pretty rotten feeling to be told that the promised consolation for a significant professional disappointment is not available to you after all because other people took it first. And while I did get in after a fairly short wait, others did not, nor did it erase the burn of being denied initially. Pretty solid thumbs-down for that entire experience.

Panels and Programming

I moderated three panels and sat on two more. They were good experiences overall, and I got some compliments on my moderation, so yay for that!

One of the three panels I attended. Seated under a large screen with the Dublin 2019 logo are moderator Mur Lafferty, Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Cat Valente, Naomi Novik, and Mary Robinette Kowal

I had less success at attending panels. Lines to get into panels were very long, and there was a serious lack of large panel rooms, so one could queue for over half an hour and still not get into the panel after all. It meant that if you were on a panel, you would not be able to attend another panel in the slot right after. The panels in the two venues were offset, CCD panels starting on the hour and Point Square panels starting at half past, which was a nice idea to let people travel between the two venues but was alas completely defeated by the length of the queues. As a result, I chose really carefully and only attended three panels in my entire five-day convention. I went to Mary Robinette Kowal’s book signing, and I managed to be there when she saw the original in the art show for the first time, which was just amazing. In the realm of bad decisions, I attended the fountain pen meetup; turns out pro calligraphers have a really different approach to pens than enthusiasts, and I felt very much out of place.

I didn’t attend any of the main events because one also needed to queue for those twice: once in the middle of the day to get an admission wristband, and once right before the event to get a seat. I usually had other obligations during the queue time in the middle of the day and only realized much later that I could have asked someone else to get a wristband for me. I have also never been to an opening or closing ceremony that wasn’t mostly dull, though I hear these were quite good. Either way, the auditorium was very small for the main convention space in a major city, so admission was quite curtailed. (Okay, I was at the Hugo Awards, but that wasn’t exactly as an attendee.)

Overall, it seems like the programming probably had awesome content, but again, issues with the venue prevented me from getting to much of it where I wasn’t working.

The Hugo Awards

Again, the goal of the Hugo Awards wasn’t to come home with a rocket. The goal was to meet my fellow finalists, dress up in truly extra outfits, and have an awesome time. As we have discussed before, https://geekcalligraphy.com/blog/2019/4/8/hugo-eligibility-revisited, and if one votes based on works declared eligible by the committee, as I feel one should, then frankly my portfolio was not deserving of the crown. So to everyone offering me condolences on the loss of the award, could you please not? Thanks ever so.

The thing that really sucked was discovering, while on a panel with fellow finalists Likhain and Meg Frank, that everyone else in the Best Fan Artist category got emails saying “Congrats, you’re a finalist!” while I got one that said “Congrats, people voted for you, but we need to make sure you’re actually eligible.” What the entire frak, Hugo Committee?!? Yes, four of the six finalists are repeat finalists, and the only other first time finalist is deeply entrenched in the fandom-running circles that Committee members run in; that should not make one iota of difference in the way you communicate with us. Your very own rules, which you dote upon so much, say that the best artist in the world might not have made eligible works that year. Either you perform due diligence on everyone, or you don’t do it for anyone. You are all welcome to take a long walk off a short pier, you gatekeeping dickweasels.

I was quite gratified that Likhain and Meg were both horrified on my behalf, as was everyone else we mentioned this to. But this? This right here is why fans can’t have nice things. I can only imagine what that would have been like for someone who was marginalized along more axes than I.

Overall

I’m glad I went, but I would say that my best times came kind of despite the con, only because of it insofar as everyone came for it. I hope my next WorldCon experience is better.

What Prepping Three Art Shows Looks Like

by Ariela

I haven’t done any new art this month. Aside from moving, I have also been prepping art to ship to three different shows: CONvergence, San Diego Comic Con, and WorldCon. All three need to be shipped either before my moving date or so soon after that I cannot count on having any time to unpack my equipment.

This is what three shows’ worth of art looks like.

Pictured here are:

• 3 framed originals

• 4 laminated prints

• 40 bagged stickers

• 69 matted prints

Not pictured here:

• Signage for 5 displays (two of the shows have separate galleries and print shops)

• Labels for all the art

• Paperwork

When we originally planned this month, we didn’t know when WorldCon’s consolidated shipping deadline would be, so we thought we were looking at just two shows. When we got the notice that the deadline for getting things in the consolidated shipment from the US to Dublin was June 30 reception, that suddenly added 3 framed originals and 40 prints to our to-do list. Had we known that earlier, we would have started prepping loooooong ago and Terri would likely have come to visit and help. As it is, I am far too tired to be working on art. On the plus side, I have a lot less matboard to move with me!

This lot goes to the post office this afternoon and I move a week from today. Wish me luck!

Pictured above: Three packages of about 30”x23”x2” and three smaller packages, totaling around 44lbs together.

Shipping Hiatus: June 11 - July 1

by Ariela

Chibi Ariela is buried under boxes, just a hand protruding, saying “A little help, please?”

I’m moving in a few weeks. The thing about moving house when you run a business from home is that your business moves, too. It also means you have a lot of business accoutrements to move. So all of our stock and equipment is getting packed up in boxes and transported to a new location and while that happens, we won’t be able to get to it to fulfill any orders.

We will still be accepting orders during this time, but we won’t be shipping out any of those orders until July 1.

Terri Appreciation Week: Hufflepuffs, They Get The Job Done

by Ariela

Happy Passover to all of you celebrating out there!

The last full week of April, that would be this week, is Administrative Professionals Week in the United States of America. ‘Round hereabouts, that means it’s Terri Appreciation Week.

It’s very easy to see what I do—I put pen to paper and make pretty art—but it’s much harder to see what Terri does.

Hufflepuffs, they get the job done.
Chibi Terri smirks with her arms crossed, wearing a Hufflepuff House scarf and says “Darn right we do.”

Terri is a Hufflepuff. She is hardworking and extremely loyal. (She is also an American badger, so don’t effing mess with her or her loved ones. She will defend her own with sharp teeth and claws. Seriously, why do Brits think of badgers as cute and bucolic? They’re scary.)

A short, non-comprehensive list of things that Terri does around here:

• Looks for art shows for us to send our art to

• Investigates other venues for selling our art (mostly our Judaica)

• Fills out paperwork (So. Much. Paperwork.)

• Itemizes every single, solitary expense the business had

• Writes most of our product release blog posts

• Handles most of our product release social media

• Comes up with ideas for art

• Blogs

• Manages the business schedule

• Monitors my workload and keeps me from overcommitting and burning myself out

• Deals with customer inquiries

• Deals with wholesale inquiries

Terri is more than just a “manager.” She’s an agent, an editor, a manager, and an assistant all rolled into one. Geek Calligraphy is not my business, it’s ours. We founded it together. She’s my business partner. And before she was any of that, she was—and continues to be—my best friend.

There are very few awards for administrative professionals, in part because what they do is very rarely visible to anyone outside their respective businesses. (Also in part because we live in a society that devalues support work, whether administrative or emotional, but we’re here to celebrate Terri, not protest the sexism and Capitalist values in our social order.) Part of the way that we change that is by publicly talking about what they do.

Terri is awesome, her work is valuable, and she deserves to have more than a week celebrating her accomplishments.

Chibi Terri holds out her Hufflepuff scarf and muses, “*sigh* These are really not my colors.”

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Chibi Terri holds a sign saying “Will Wrangle on a Contract Basis.”

Does what Terri does for Geek Calligraphy sound helpful? Do you wish you had someone to do some of that for you? You can!

Terri also takes clients on a freelance basis.

Some things Terri can do for you:

• Invoicing

• Yelling at People Who Need Yelling At

• General Unsticking

• Social Media Plan

Visit her website: ArtistWrangling.com

Hugo Eligibility Revisited

by Ariela

The news is out! We’re a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist this year. I’m still working on believing it. Terri and I are both so, so grateful to you all.

Voting will begin soon, and when the voter packet is distributed, you’ll see two of our pieces in there:

“Penric’s Demon” Illuminated First Page
From the novella “Penric’s Demon” by Lois McMaster Bujold.
Licensed by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Anathem Illuminated First Page
From the novel Anathem by Neal Stephenson.
Produced with permission from Neal Stephenson.

But where did “Lady Astronaut Nouveau” go?

So, funny story about that.

When we published our eligibility post in December, we included the above two works, plus “Lady Astronaut Nouveau” based on The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. The former two were created earlier in 2018 and shown in art shows at Confluence and ICON. We finished “Lady Astronaut Nouveau” late enough in the year that we didn’t have any more art shows booked in which we could show it. We put it all over the interwebs, though.

This is what the Hugo Awards Website gives as the criteria for the Best Fan Artist category (bolding ours):

The final category is also for people. Again note that the work by which artists should be judged is not limited to material published in fanzines. Material for semiprozines or material on public displays (such as in convention art shows) is also eligible. Fan artists can have work published in professional publications as well. You should not consider such professionally-published works when judging this award.

The internet is about as public as it gets, right? It was even included in Mary Robinette’s Pinterest Gallery for Lady Astronaut Fan Art.

Apparently the Hugo Committee disagrees. Per the email I received from the committee member who contacted me prior to the announcement of the ballot:

The first two pieces clearly qualify, so that is fine. I'm afraid that the rules exclude pieces that have only been displayed online.

This, dear reader, is ridiculous.

From elsewhere on the same page on the Hugo Awards website explaining eligibility:

Web Sites, E-books, and Medium of Distribution

Works published electronically rather than on paper have always been accepted as nominees. A decision of the 2009 WSFS Business Meeting formally acknowledged this by ratifying a Constitutional Amendment that added the words “or the equivalent in other media” to various category definitions. There is no requirement that a work be published on paper (for written/graphic fiction and non fiction), on film or video tape (for dramatic presentations), or that it be distributed through any traditional methods such as bookstores, movie theatres, etc. In other words, publishing and distributing your work on a web site is exactly the same as having copies of your book in a bookstore or your movie shown in a movie theatre. Aside from the fundamental distinctions between written, graphic, and dramatic works, medium of distribution has nothing to do with a work’s eligibility.

And further:

Self-Published Works

There is no restriction on who publishes a work. For example, if an author makes a novel available to be read on a web site or prints copies at his/her own expense, that novel is eligible just the same as a novel published by a well-known publishing company and sold in traditional bookstores.

So why is it possible to “publish” something online but not to put anything “on public display?”

As much as we are sore about losing what I consider to be one of the best pieces of art I have ever done from my Hugo-eligible portfolio this year, I am more upset by the general message this sends

We have blogged before about why we think that restricting the Professional Artist category to “professional publications” is outdated in an age when it is possible to make most if not all of one’s artistic income from online sales directly to customers. But there’s something extra odd and gatekeeper-y in telling a fan that their fan work doesn’t count until someone else - a zine or an art show head - gives it their stamp of approval.

(Also, art shows cost money to enter, adding an economic barrier-to-entry that I find particularly distasteful.)

If authors who publish online are real authors, then artists who post their work online are real artists.

If fan writers who write online are real fans, the artists who art online are real fans, too.

We will be attending Dublin2019, and Terri has a proposal for the WSFS business meeting in the works. I am told there are lists. Because it is time and past to overhaul the Pro Artist / Fan Artist categories. We would really love your support in this endeavor. If you are interested, please let us know by filling out the form below.

And in the meanwhile, please do not consider “Lady Astronaut Nouveau” when you fill out your ballot. If that means that you rank us lower than you would otherwise, so be it. This year’s slate is full of amazing Fan Artists and we could not be mad to lose to any of them.

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Want to Help Revise the Artist Category Requirements for the Hugos?

Terri is working on a proposal. If you would like to support us, or be updated on our efforts, please let us know how to contact you below.