LAFFCON4 Poster

Laffcon4 took place in June of 2019.

This year I had a bigger role in things than usual, taking responsibility for choosing and negotiating with presenters for the event and with contributors for the conference booklet. I organized an international Lafferty inspired poetry contest. I also managed the website & social media, did the layout, and published the program booklet. This year's poster was also mine. 

The visual theme was Lafferty's novel "The Reefs of Earth," about a family of goblin-like alien children Hell-bent on destroying humanity. The illustration had to be pulled together quickly. References were taken from pictures of Depression-era children. 

In the story there are six Dulanty children (seven if you count Bad John) [which I did not]. Working on the piece I began to realize that the imagery was coming across as too Holloween'ish. This led to the removal of the old dead tree painted into the background and my choice not to include Bad John, who is a ghost. 

Kevin Cheek will be organizing next year's event.

I'm looking forward to going back in 2020 and in focusing just on the artwork.

 

Adaptation

Just finished a new detailed illustration for Space and Time Magazine and, again, my hand was none too happy about it (osteoarthritis). So, in the spirit of adapting to getting older, I experimented with icing my hand every hour or so. It did nothing for the pain, but wonders for the redness and swelling. There's a creme for pain that works well. Next time, I'll try alternating heat and ice and I still need to find some foam or padding to wrap around the stylus so I don't have to squeeze quite so tightly.

The illustration will appear in issue #134, available for purchase in multiple formats on September 23, 2019.