Darkovercon Interior

As with the last 30 years, December begins with my return from DarkoverCon. This hotel, currently the Crowne Plaza in Timonium, Maryland, has been the setting for the convention since about 1988. It features an enormous atrium, with a slanting roof, an industrial space worthy of an old-time metal factory or airplane hangar. In the earlier days, there was a swimming pool in the atrium, which connected to another part of the pool outdoors. The whole space stank of chlorine from this pool. When the Crowne Plaza took the hotel over, they mercifully removed the pool and filled in the pit, leaving a vast flat plain on which anything, any event, can be staged. Here is a view of it from my second-floor room, which looked out on the interior. It's before the convention started, and the tables are already set up for the vendors, but there is not a soul in sight at 8 PM when I did this drawing.

DarkoverCon didn't have a lot of attendance this year. Every year it gets smaller. I would guess that not more than 150 people attended, at least for the whole weekend. Some people showed up only for one day. I didn't sell many pictures, and made only a small amount of money, not at all enough to cover my expenses. I sold "Plasma Flames," "Calatrava's Bridge," and "Meteor Wing," which you have seen earlier on this Weblog.

I had a good time anyway, enjoying meeting with friends I only see once or twice a year face to face. I held "Salon Pyracantha" and much wine was consumed. Now it's back to the holiday cookies at work, and the drawing board in the home studio.