gonzai | Balticon Report/Rant (Reply)

Ah yes, Balticon…talk about your long weekends.

I arrived at 11am Friday to discover that the guys were able to get in Thursday night and set up most of the display for the artshow – frames, panels, and such. All that was left was the lighting, and that was almost done. So hooray for limited manual labor. But…until 6pm or so, the crew consisted of art show director Shirley, who was also the con’s treasurer, and everyone needed her right now; yours truly, and one other person (the one other changed every couple hours.) That was it. So I hung 8 of the 11 mail-in artists as well as my own art, and checked in nearly every artist other than myself, and set up the first half of the print shop. I had to shanghai a security guy to move Theresa Mather’s art (about 40 pounds worth). And oh yeah, the computers weren’t working. So we couldn’t actually sell anything without the computers (and, therefore, the credit card machine) working, and everyone wanted me right now. For 7 hours, I was able to get my badge and go potty once. The rest, I was in service.

A couple volunteers showed up around 6 but could only stay until 7, so Shirley went to dinner and I went to the dealer’s room. Snagged a copy of John Barrowman’s autobiography (great pictures, but I haven’t gotten to read it yet) and a DVD of the con’s last two plays, but nothing else struck me. Food-wise, either, so I went back to the art show and ate pistachios. I also bought one print by Charlene Taylor D’Alessio, one of the artists who did things right and helped out and was a gem to work with – I bought her ‘Doctor Whomster Returns’, featuring a hamster dressed as Ten and perched inside the TARDIS. Shirley came back, as did Paul, who was supposed to run the print shop, and with a couple of artists, we held the fort until the show closed at 9pm. The annual art show reception was cancelled for reasons I know not, but I didn’t complain – I worked 9 of 10 hours, I was ready for home. Because the only means we had for hanging art high was hotel chairs, I did a lot of climbing, and pulled every muscle in my left leg and most of the ones in my right. Didn’t do my back and shoulders any favors either.

Back at 10am the next morning and…the computers still don’t work. It wasn’t until afternoon that they started functioning properly, and then it didn’t take much to knock them back offline, like a volunteer trying to help 5 people at once. Oh yeah, that was me. Twice Saturday afternoon, I was left alone in the art show. Just me to watch two computers, two cash registers, two cash boxes, a ton of art and oh, handle all of the sales, questions, and late-arriving artists too, would you? I never had a chance to nosh on the deli platter they brought us, and barely had time to potty. Meanwhile, the artist GOH had placed two of the darkest, most violent and sadistic pieces of art I’d ever seen IN FRONT OF THE DOOR. I have no problem with questionable art being in the show, but I don’t see why it had to be the first thing everyone saw walking in. Several people walked in, took one look and walked back out. He didn’t label or price any of his work either – instead leaving a note to talk to the art show staff. And didn’t leave us any paperwork. It was late Saturday before we were able to get a price sheet out of his significant other. Other artist related issues – half of them didn’t show up until Saturday, and although all art was supposed to be up by noon, there were still artists moseying in and setting up at 5pm. Many didn’t pay for their space until late Saturday or on Sunday. Precious few did their paperwork in advance - or correctly, for that matter. Some of the mail-ins didn’t bother mounting or bagging their work, or attaching bid sheets, or in one case even doing the bid sheets, so the art arrived banged up in shipping and then I had to do their paperwork for them and tape bid sheets directly to the art. One mail-ins art came apart in shipping; after an hour of putting everything back together, I found she never did the bid sheets and her control sheets were wrong, so we had to wait until she called us back to hang any of it.

Now, I might not have minded being stuck with most of the work and the idiocy except that no one bought my art. Or even bid on it. I finally sold some prints, directly, by hard-selling them to a poor woman who made the mistake of admitting she loves Capt Jack and Dr Who, at 9pm. I moved a couple more prints Sunday morning and finally got some bids less than an hour before the auction closed, but still made only about $100, when I’d spent half of that just to reserve space. I tend to root for artists who do things right, but most of those artists didn’t sell much either. And the computers for the entire con were down Sunday morning, so nothing could be done at all. Pretty much everything I wanted to do was on Sunday as well, so I had to skip most of it. Fortunately the video room guy took pity on me and copied the movies I’d wanted to see onto a disk for me, but the panels were pretty much out of the question. I did see half of the play, ‘Battlestar: Gargleblaster’, but when the Farpoint conchair turned up in a tiny red dress and spike heels, well, it just wasn’t pretty. The auction was tiny, only 8 pieces and half of them to the bid sheet, but the remaining pieces were actively and amusingly bid upon. Then back to the art show, where I got to take down all 11 mail-in artists and pack them up as best I could. Some pack well…some don’t. See what I was saying about doing things right above…the same people tended to be the offenders. Also rescued lots of sold but unclaimed art, a lot of hooks and clips, etc etc and by 6pm, I was toast. I wasn’t hanging around until 9 for the Torchwood panel. I came back briefly on Monday to pick up my computer drive from Tom the video guy and that was about it.

The con was down attendance-wise and sales were way down in the art show and for most dealers – not sure how the charity auctions went. Things were on a general down note as the con began with announcements of the death of Robert Asprin and two of the con’s regular members, but I don’t really know a lot about the con as a whole because I never got out of the bleepin’ art show. There. Vent over.