5/16/11 - Sunday in Louisville: WonderFest and 21c Cabaret Life Drawing

Gas prices have kept my travel to minimum the last couple of months. But there was too much happening in Louisville this past weekend to discourage me from a road trip!

First there was WonderFest - a great show that hardly anyone one in Kentucky knows about! This is an internationally attended showcase for commercial and garage kit modelers. Fans of Science Fiction and Horror movies are well entertained with the displays and guests. I talked with some acquaintances from past shows: William Stout and Kerry Gammill. Both of whom are very talented artists and were gracious enough to do a sketch for me.



I also met some new faces there - Mike Fredericks is the publisher of the long running Prehistoric Times (Bill Stout and Jim Gurney have been featured in several issues) which is a great resource for comic artists, paleo artists and illustrators who need to study the art and science of portraying dinosaurs.

Next I met the the very nice John Olvevich, who was there for the first time representing his company Glenmarc Industries, Inc. They are the premier supplier of mold making  and resin casting supplies for the garage kit crowd and for many Hollywood special effects studios. He was very interested in mailing connections with sculptors whom he could refer to manufacturers and other customers. If you need to cast something this is company to contact! john had some incredible cast figure samples at his booth from a Chicago area artist, Eduardo Andrade - look for his work to come to prominence very soon!

Then I stumbled on a sculptors table with some really inspired and naturalistic sculptures of dinos. David Silva was making his first visit to WonderFest and blew me away with the painted samples of his work. David is toy sculptor and concept designer for a toy company in NJ by day and dino sculptor in his spare time. Hope to talk more and maybe see him in process sometime soon! Tip: David recommends Greg Paul's "The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs" as a great reference for the latest on saurian anatomy.

Next year I need to plan on attending WonderFest all day or even both days - two hours was not near long enough!


I left about 4:15p to make it downtown to 21c and the Cabaret Life Drawing. It was a small crowd but a fun session. Enjoyed meeting fellow artists Scott McCrory and a  young MICA art student who's name I did not get :-). Wow! Our  model, Desiree, had lots of excellent, if challenging poses! Skylar Smith, the moderator, was her usual calming and generous self! :-)

A stimulating afternoon and evening for sure!