Forgive me for not having my thoughts organized before I begin posting. It's sometime in the afternoon here in Atlanta, and I
walked off the plane this morning with little more than 2 hours of sleep, managed to find my way back with 3 bags to my car and make the 30 minute drive home without getting into more trouble. So I'm typing here kind off the top of my head. YOU WILL LIKELY EXPERIENCE MINUTIAE WHILE READING THIS....


So, this trip out to AX started with a few issues, some of the existential kind (why?) and some of the logistical kind.

Let me basically get the bad stuff out of the way , because without it, I will come off more negative than I ought to.... but LAX (Los Angeles INternational Airport) SUCKS MONSTER POO. Last year and I arrived, only to get stranded for a few hours while a crazy man made a bomb threat and shut down all traffic in and out of the airport.... this year, I arrived very tired and stressed out after having trouble checking in because my convention banner stand bag was noted "special baggage" when in fact it was not, forcing me to nervously leave my car at the curb while I waited 20 minutes to talk to someone at the counter in Atlanta... anyways bags arrive in LAX late and yes, one of them is broken T_T.

and helped me drag the bag over to the shuttle stop where I pissed off the coordinator because I kept asking for the confirmation number. (I was kind of still deaf in one ear at the point.)

Anyways, get to Westin Bonaventure hotel and it turns out to be cool. Much better than Long Beach where we ended up a very long shuttle ride away across the Port of LAX. Ha! Got lost in Little Tokyo that afternoon, freaked out over bread at the Yamazaki bakery, the grocery store, the random stores, Jungle Collectibles and then went to registration .. la la la.

Anyways, the rest of the stuff went somewhat smoothly, although there were definitely some minuses to throwing our artist bags into the back of a school bus on the first day along with trash D: , but hahaha, oh well. Nothing goes perfectly.

Other than that, the con was sort of okay in terms of the changes. This year the alley was in the Dealer's Room. This meant shorter hours as we had to close when the exhibitors closed, but it also meant a lot of traffic and little down time. (This is kind of a problem when you are not exactly on West Coast time and feel like crud for it )

The economy was definitely messing around with poor California, and so I think I can say doing about the same as last year was to be expected, although I think it always strikes me that year to year the interest in original art seems to proportionally decrease with the changing in anime fandom demographics. This observation saddens me, as I feel it confirms that I really should back away from conventions (or perhaps these conventions).

Aside from sales though and finding that the fandom is going in a direction I don't agree with (totally about merchandise), I
have to say that this was a great time to see people / meet people/ and catch up with them. Losing friends puts things in context. Having time with people , as short as it may be, becomes so much more critically important. I have to say I had
the best of people around me -- from , , and her kind and loving family, the hysterically wrongly funny and her saint fiancee, Carlton... to the entertaining ...


Anyways, it was a good convention for catching up with various folks, but unfortunately a weird one in terms of interacting
with people. One of the drawbacks of these larger cons is that everyone seems to have a sort of social ADD and that the intimacy one might experience more with Momocon (~4000 attendees) or AWA (~10000 attendees) is lacking.

I did really appreciate the handful of folks who talked to me about the non-fanart stuff as well as the nerding over Skip Beat with other fangirls. I also was happy with catching up with those from AX years past like , CherieDee and
her cosplaying sisters, (who I am very proud of for graduating and getting into the gaming industry), , and . I was also so happy to meet and her kind, kind boyfriend. (Seriously, she is SO NICE, MR folks.) (Edit: I forgot to mention that I didn't get to throw anything at across the way, but I did bid on one of her art pieces in the art show, sending it to auction and giving someone else a heart attack xD)


Yes - at times I wanted to throw things out of sheer boredom, but I really had a good group of artists around me. :iconanjithedestroyer: and (and her awesome table partner) were really nice. (ILU Cat for helping me pack my new not so flexible replacment suitcase.) Of course and were also my tethers to sanity too!

Unfortunately due to my being totally frazzled, I left without saying goodbye to and others (eee, I forgot people wanted pictures).

If it weren't for the people I think, though, I would definitely say that it's time to move on from the convention scene. Aside from the logistical nightmare that traveling creates, there is the bigger problem for me that I feel more and more disconnected from the fandom as it stands. The fandom these days loves its steak and potatoes, rarely samples exotic things, and constantly wants "things" more than "art and ideas." I saw a lot of really good artists being neglected by congoers because they didn't have the shiny keychains and buttons that others did. To me, as a long time convention goer, this is kind of a 180 from where we were ten years ago.

I think I will bow out of AX as an artist for a year or two and let myself look for opportunities that align more with original ideas and more interaction...

Anyways, on to AWA and the future, I'm looking forward to it even more so now. mixed portfolio and not constantly be doing fanart.

Moreover, I'm looking forward to writing again in the near future. I think after considering other non-AX conversations that
also occurred the past few days and input from those who have known me longer, I need to go back and really start being more of a creative heavyweight. I really do have so many concepts and ideas that have been populating my gallery here that want to be epic storylines.

Overall,though, I don't mean to put down AX. The AA is one of the BEST run in the country. Staff is wonderful, hands down.

The fact is I had a great time with people, and think this was a positive experience in this journey I've been taking in 2009. While my wallet definitely is lighter (dang you retailers for having So many GOOD ARTBOOKS), I think I got the confirmation I needed on the directions I need to go in next.

I need to move forward!