July 24, 2019

Hugo Reading 2019: Best Fan Artist




There's some interesting nominees in the Fan Artist category this year, with some people who make SFF jewelry and whose work constitutes some or all of their entries. There's a calligrapher and a sculptor (albeit the sculptor was nominated in part for last year's Hugo base, which is an odd bit of meta). That made this category a little hard to rank, at least for me. 

Well, here goes. 

My ballot:





6) Meg Frank

Meg Frank offered artwork and jewelry in her packet, and the only thing I really liked was this gorgeous necklace. Her art, not so much.






5) Spring Schoenhuth

Spring Schoenhuth is another artist who apparently just works in jewelry, and though a couple of her pieces were gorgeous, overall I didn't like her work as well as the other jewelry designers. 






4) Likhain (AKA Mia Sereno)

When I saw this in Likhain's voter packet, I said, "Hey! That looks familiar!" In fact, it's the cover of a Kickstarted book I own, Mother of Invention from Twelfth Planet Press. Mia Sereno uses a lot of bright colors in her artwork, and her art tends to be very busy. That works for book covers, such as the one shown above, but I think it would get on my nerves after a while. 




3) Ariela Housman

This is the calligrapher. Her website is here, and I would really urge you to go look at the work she has on offer. It is far more varied and colorful than anything she included in her Hugo packet. 




2) Grace P. Fong

Some of Grace Fong's art (this picture in particular) was quite fun. She seems to have a sense of humor in her work that is missing in some of the other finalists. 






1) Sara Felix

There was some gorgeous jewelry in Sara Felix's packet, along with the amusing and quirky 2018 Hugo base, and the new 2018 YA award. Yeah, it's meta, but what the hell. I just liked it more than anything else. 

Next up: Best Professional Editor, Long Form



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