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About Me Member Old Fart Taral Wayne57/Male/Canada Recent Activity Deviant for 1 Year
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SF FANS, HUGO VOTERS, & OTHER ALIENS

Mon Apr 7, 2008, 2:36 AM I was advised in strong terms to create a website where I could show my art to SF fans. After all, while relatively few of them read fanzines where my work has been published, it is only SF fans who vote on the Hugos. But why a gallery at DeviantArt, when I have another at FurAffinity? It might surprise you that there is a considerable difference between them. The gallery at FA is topheavy in furry art, erotica, and material I somewhat disingenuously describe as "niche". (Rather than "fetish", "perverted", or plain "wacko".) The material at DeviantArt contains a little such material, but is purposedly slanted at SF fans who may not be used to the infiniate variety of genre art on the internet.

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THE HUGO AND I

Let me start something like 35 years ago... I've been deeply involved with Science Fiction fandom since the early 1970's, and after all that time have made a small mark. For example, I'll be the Fan Guest of Honour at the worldcon in Montreal, in 2009. I've also been nominated once again for a Hugo award, this time by this year's worldcon in Denver. It's the 7th. time, and this time I'd like to *win* if it's possible.

The key to winning is probably reaching outside of the small fanzine community, which while not strictly closed, isn't well known to SF fandom as a whole. Most of the winners in recent years seem to have had presences in spin-off fandoms such as Trek or gaming or costuming. The winners were also able to attend conventions where they could display their work in the art show. I don't really have those options, but there was one way I could match other artists. An on-line presence.

The problem with my page at FA is that it's a pretty mixed bag, with a heavy emphasis on furry art, and much of it is too erotic or too kinky for a general audience. Friends urged me to find a different site for a showcase.

After a little thought, Deviant Art seemed the best option. Here I am. Browse thoroughly. Don't miss any folders regardless what I called them. And vote often...

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MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOST-WRITING

If you don't mind, rather than rewrite the same boring old details about myself, I'll quite from from FurAffinity.

Artist Profile:
I've been drawing almost before TV's were common, let alone computers and the internet. I was drawing furry characters before there was such a fandom. I might have been the first to use a computer to cut mimeograph stencils to publish an SF fanzine. But it's almost an entirely different world now, and I tend to be a bit slow keeping up. I don't carry a cell phone, own an iPod, known how to ICQ, use PayPal, or know how to operate my digital camera yet. But I try to hang in there.

What I have done (before middle age began to slow me down) includes some magazine and book illustration, a short and obscure career in b/w comics, private commissions, dealer at cons, and too many years as an active science fiction fan to care to number.

Because of the internet, making a living has become a lot trickier, it seems. It's multiplied the number of artists a hundredfold, but the audience is accustomed to 99% of the art being free. It's hard to know if there's a net gain. At the same time travel has gotten more expensive, and the border a paranoid free-fire zone. Cons are a memory. The final insult, a Canadian dollar is over par with the buck. If I take $100 US to the bank, it appears as a two figure entry in my bankbook now. Maybe I should just get a real job, like I had when I was 25. On the other hand, if I hold out another decade, I can 'retire' on welfare, and enjoy the first real prosperity I've ever known, and finally draw what I want!

Ambition is a cruel master.

New Address

Wed Aug 26, 2009, 6:19 PM
Please pay attention!

That means you in the corner too, the one with the cell phone!

I have a new e-mail address. Netscape is no more. Instead, you should reach me at:

Taral@teksavvy.com

  • Listening to: Televison likely, Tom Waits, Yes, or Blondie.
  • Reading: "Julian Comstock", Robert Charles Wilson
  • Watching: ...the little words moving across the screen
  • Playing: With little toy cars (1l18 scale).
  • Eating: Yes, but trying to watch my weight.
  • Drinking: Are you paying the tab? I'll have a Drambouie.

Devious Info

  • Current Residence: Toronto
  • Interests: Coin collecting, die-cast cars, Roman history, too many other things to list, but those are current.
  • Favourite band or musician: Yes, Gentle Giant, Kate Bush, Lene Lovich, Tom Waits, Talking Heads, Beatles, lots more...
  • Favourite genre of music: Anything but rap, gospel, or country.
  • Favourite artist: Carl Barks, Rene Uderzo, David Low, Herge, others...
  • Favourite poet or writer: Lindsey Davis, Mark Twain, Isaac Asimov, Raymond Chandler
  • Operating System: Window XP Pro
  • Favourite game: The Neverhood
  • Personal Quote: "Great men are rarely good men" -- Lord Acton
  • Tools of the Trade: Ball point pen, mechanical pencil, eraser, six inch rule, and paper.

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Comments


:iconttaf:
YESSS! Watching you here too with all my respect.

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:megaphone: Feel my anger!
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This is Bunny. Copy & paste Bunny into your
signature to help him gain world domination.
:jackdirt:
:above: GO BUNNIES GO!
BUNNIES FOREVER!:horns:
:spotlight-right:BUNNY POWER!:spotlight-left:
:iconedgeling:
Wow... i love your work, sir.
:icontaralwayne:
I have more and differetn stuff at FurAffinity, under the user name Saara.

[link]

I use DA as a place I can send viewers who may be a little conservative in their tastes -- particularly to send SF fans to.

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:iconwavesplz: Random Deviant Passing By!! :iconw00tplz:
:iconangelwingleftplz::iconlove::iconangelwingrightplz:

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Thanks so much for all the faves on Amy Taral!

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