Alternative Press Expo!

This weekend I was an exhibitor at San Francisco's Alternative Press Expo (APE), with my beautiful and inspiring friend Megan! Several months ago another friend of mine recommended that I sign up for a table here because APE was a good first convention, and she was right: all the exhibitors were friendly, helpful, and loved to talk art. It was inspiring to feel like we actually had a place among these "real" professional artists. The absolute highlight of my weekend was when local SF illustrator Paul Madonna and his wife Joen cruised through the show, and complimented my work. I didn't recognize him until he introduced himself, and I choked on whatever I was drinking (probably wine, by then), feeling like an awkward preteen trying out lipstick around the high schoolers. It was a graceless but hilarious meeting.

At our table I showed the prints I've been working on at my internship, in addition to several smaller pieces like notecards and framed bits. I stacked the prints in a vintage wooden crate, displayed my business cards on a silver tray, and people loved everything. 

Excuse the dim photos; it was pretty dark in the Concourse. You get the idea, though. Here's one of Megan's pieces, my personal favorite:

You can check out more of her stuff here. I camped out at her house in the City for three days while we attended the show, and to be with her was like a vacation from life in the East Bay: cafè breakfast every morning, walking arm in arm through the fog to get Turkish coffee and discuss the layout of our displays and which artwork we had admired, what books we've read. We're still catching up on those five years between high school and college... there's a lot to tell from then.

Anyway, I'll post my prints in a separate entry. Thanks to everyone out there who bought a print! If you, reader, are interested in buying one of my pieces, look out for my upcoming Etsy store, also by the nae "quickening force." Ten points to anyone who can name the quote that comes from before I post the explanation.

I look forward to meeting more people at APE next year!