This year is passing rather quicker than I would like and Necon 28 has now come and gone.    

     This Necon was probably the best ever. We had the usual curve ball from the campus provider and wound up camping at their reception center about a mile away over the Mount Hope bridge. Rooms and rooming became an opportunity of flexibility for the housing portion of the committee. Fortunately, I only run the art show.

     Whatever rooming glitches there may have been, it that was made up by the fact that the function rooms , ie: the dealers, art and panel discussion rooms were large, with working AC and all were contiguous. Cafeteria, rooms, swimming pool, exercise room and a courtyard for BBQ’ing were literally all within rock throwing distance. And that would be a rock thrown by a penguin. Not having to walk scads of distance through swelter to eat or get something from your room was a pleasure for all.

     The art show ran well and many blessings to all those wonderful people who helped to move all those panels up and down. The roast duck was John McIlveen, a really nice guy who deserves his children, hehe. The short notice talent show got about a dozen entries and what a hoot. Lots of truly talented people. There was frantic headbanging-chaos-rock to belly dancing to the entire convention singing choruses to the musical stylings of Cthulhu cultist and writer, Gary Frank.

     Micki won third place for her belly dancing routine. Her valuable prize was a flying monkey catapult gun with four flying monkeys. I am going to mount it on a plaque and get it all gussied up. The medals we made for the Olympics went over well and I even got a gold one back for placing first in croquet. BTW, croquet is the Olympic sport of kings : )

     Next year, we hope to be able to stay at the con itself. We had to truck back every night to be sure that Mojo, now about 11 months, hadn’t tore down the house. He has more energy than any three dogs and not much way to get rid of it except to tear ass around the yard while savaging whatever it is he has dragged outside whether that would be shoes, clothing, comforters etc.

Pictures are courtesy of talented artist, Steve Gilberts.

Well,  Necon 28 looms around the corner and will be upon us before we know it! The medals for the olympics have been completed. It says Club Necon across the top and down the side.  Along with swaying palms, a skeletal drummer and skeletal dancer, there is a cactus plant ala my G. Herriman influence and little skulls tucked into available nooks and crannies. The design is probably best described as day of the dead meets bellydancing-burlesque. That is my take but judge for yourself. These were pretty tough to photograph and my eyes are not getting any better : )

So there they are, ready to be won, the gold, silver and bronze for this years events. I designed and prepped these. The lovely and talented Manuela Birner finished them off with all the sparklies, rhinestones and such. I tried several times and only adequately captured the glistening effect of the surface.  They are roughly 3.25″ wide by 3.5″ high.

This is one of five of a special black edition that will be for sale. These were given even more attention with addition of faux gemstones in several places.

I suspect Necon will be hot again this year but when the sun goes down, the beer and saugies will appear and all will be well. Hope to see you there!

     Sad day as visual effects legend, Stan Winston moves on. He was only 62 and was amongst Hollywood’s leading makeup, visual-effects, and animatronic artists. He worked in Hollywood for more than three decades and there is not a person who watches movies who was not been subject to his magic whether they knew of him or not. Best known for working on such well known films as Terminator, Jurassic park, Predator, The Entity, The Thing, Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, Titanic, Monster Squad, Batman Returns, Congo and many many more.     

For me, this was the man that took puppetry to new heights. Puppets that were so ‘real’ that when you saw them on film that you did not question their reality but rather watched in awe and sometimes horror as they moved about. The dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, especially the brachiosaur sneezing and the fallen triceratops were fabulous living creatures to stare at in wonder. The alien queen in Aliens bespoke of an artistry that suspended disbelief with ease. A fourteen foot remote controlled monstrosity that took over a dozen techs to operate. Now that’s a puppet!!!     

A sign of mastery is when it looks easy.     

I remember the first time I saw The Thing. It gave me nightmares for a week. The smallest noise and I would wake up sweating. Thanks Stan!!!

Hazel Court, 82, has moved on. This talented lady was also a sculptress and a painter. As an actress she was well known to English and American audiences and is probably best known for her work in Roger Corman’s “The Raven” in 1963 when she shared the screen with Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre.  The Raven is a fun popcorn movie, no doubt. Also well known for her role in in Hammer Studios 1957  ”Curse of Frankenstein”  she worked along side with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Hammer’s films pursued sensationalism, sexuality and violence, and Hazel Court emerged as the studio’s principal female attraction. As a scream queen, she really had the shrieking banshee thing going not that the obvious low cut outfits hurt the movie either ; ).

She did bunches of other work in TV and the movies but these horror movies are the one that I remember seeing as a kid and still watch now and again as they are in my DVD collection.  Her daughter said that she would get over 100 pieces of fan mail a month and she would reply to every single one. Now that is a class act.

04.06.08 The world has been diminished once again with the passing of a movie legend. Charlton Heston has moved on. He was 84. I grew up watching this man working his magic on the silver screen. Well known for Ben-Hur and The Commandments, he played many many other roles. My favorites movies of his are Will Penny, The Mountain Men, Touch of Evil and of course, Planet of the Apes. He was a heroic icon from a different age of film and cultural standards than what exists today. In so many ways, a better and stronger one, I think. Happy Trails, Chuck!!!

02.27.08 Something interesting and fun to see. About a week ago, I recieved a letter. This is the bulk of it.

………….I am the editor of a smallish regional newspaper on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia and we’ve discovered that footprints of a Paracyclotosaurus davidi were discovered in our area. I wanted to do a follow up story and I typed the name of the dinosaur into google and found your illustration. I have absolutely no budget to pay with, but would love to feature the illustration in our paper, credited to you, of course. The best I could offer is to give your website a free plug next to the picture……………

Polite requests for public needs regardless of remuneration generally get my cooperation. I think a part of being an artist is the education of others either through the use of art or about art itself. So there I am, well my work anyway, down under and just above the local classifieds : ) My Zen currency pouch is getting fatter. Wonder what I oughta buy in the next life. Wonder if I can get a catalog now?

02.20.08  If you are not aware as yet, there will be a total eclipse of the moon tonight. It will start around 8:43 and should be done about 10 pm. If you have never seen one, it is worth the time to bundle up and catch it. Colors you might see include shades of orange, red, gold, blue and green.  Color is dependent on atmospheric pollution density so heavier areas will see the blues and greens. If the sky is clear, get on out there because your next chance is not till December 2010. The last one was in 2004.

Later: Well,  the eclipse was quite lovely. The night was chilled, the moon quite high and covered with a beautiful rust overlay. Another visual feast come and gone.

02.18.08  Well here is a new addition to the pack….Mojo is a rescue critter from the South. His point of origin allows one day between being picked up and extermination, so he has got some luck going for him. He is about 6 months, a real cuddle bug and has acquired a damned mellow disposition for an animal that has been scrounging out of ditches to survive. He is pretty thin but we shall pack some pounds on those bones.

Hello World!

     My name is Rick Sardinha. I am an artist living in Rhode Island and I am going to be utilizing this blog somewhat as a brain dump as I explore various artforms and creative urges. These can range from oil paint to catapult building to designing burlesque and belly dancing costumes and whatever else I can get my mitts on. 

     So what to expect: Lunacy. Puppets in control. Demented puppets in control of the controlling puppets. Art. Art. Art. The creative process in regards to multiple disciplines that I am trying to get a handle on.  Topics will range widely as I get excited about blackpowder weapons, catapults, stop motion, archery and projects I am working on. My current lust fad is for steam launches.  Do not expect too well of a structured thought continuum over a couple of paragraphs.  Do expect tangents and a degree of weirdness. I am an artist not a writer.

What you won’t get is religion, politics or which bimbo forgot her underwear today. Let’s leave that fascinating part of the world behind. Now go and kill your television and recapture your life! 

cheers

Rick