Thursday
Up at 3:45 a.m. to catch a flight. Out of the house by 4:10, at the airport by 4:35, boarding by 5:10.
One stop in St Louis. I did not see much of the airport, but the terminal airport seemed crowded. There was not much space around the boarding lines. Reading "The Dispossessed" and "The End of All Things" on these legs.
One of the legs was supposed to be completely fully, but it looked like there were a good number of open seats.
Landed in Philly around 11:30, got the rental car and headed for Allentown.
Checked in at the Holiday Inn and then grabbed some breakfast/lunch at the Hamilton. The burger I had was good, but their menu seemed to be limited.
Off to IlluxCon at the Allentown Art Museum. Wandered around, drooling over artwork. K. asked me not to buy any art this weekend, but I knew that was pretty much a lost cause. There were about 10 pieces I considered at some point over the weekend. Luckily, I was too slow on the trigger and some were already sold before I made the decision to buy them. Well, one got sold. A color sketch of "The Ice Queen" by Stephen Hickman.
Dinner was a solo affair at the Allentown Brew Works. I was not impressed by the beers I tried. Maybe it was a result of the travel day?
Friday:
Breakfast at the City Center Diner.
Back to IlluxCon to wander around, chat with the artists, and I went to a panel that was "Biz Basics Bootcamp for Artists" to see what artists need to know so that I might be able to pass the information along at a later date. I also picked up a hardback copy of Spectrum 21 and Spectrum 22.
I had some good conversations with John Jude Palencar, mainly talking about his uncle. Also talked with Gary Lippincott, as always a congenial man with a seemingly iron trap mind for names. Stephen Hickman and I talked about camouflage pants while I examined the piece of his I was interested in.
Dinner at"Islands in the Sun" for Jamaican food. Pretty good stuff. A one man operation, at least on a Friday night.
Back to the Holiday Inn for the Showcase. I talked to about 10 artists about sending their artwork to ArmadilloCon. I got some positive responses, so I need to follow-up this week and remind them about our conversation.
Saturday:
Breakfast at Billy's diner. Upscale diner food. The waitresses were a little in the weeds due to the convention being in town. They are across the street from the hotel, so they got a lot of extra business.
Back at IlluxCon, the Weekend Showcase was open, so there were more artists to check out. Found another piece I was interested in, one that broke through my resolve to not buy any art over the weekend. I ended up buying 3 pieces: a William O'Connor, a John Harris, and a David Palumbo. Those have been handed off to a shipping guy, so I hope they'll be in hand by the end of next week.
Went to Jane Frank's panel on the state of collecting today.
Dinner was at Damascus, a Syrian restaurant. We had a goup of at: Andrea Senchy, Jannie Shea, Mark Olsen, Mike and Beth Zipser, Joe Siclari and Edie Stern. A big group of art SMOFs.
I then went through the Showcase at the hotel again and then off to sleep.
Sunday:
Breakfast at the City Center Diner.
Killed a little time until time to leave for the airport. Took forever to find a gas station near the airport to fill up the rental car. I probably should have just taken a train from the airport up to Allentown, and would next year if the convention was going to be in Allentown again. It's going to be in Reading instead.
The first leg of the flight was supposed to be completely full, but I had an empty seat next to me. the second leg had mild turbulence throughout the flight due to the remains of Hurricane Patricia.
K picked me up at the airport adn we went home and had pinto beans and cornbread for dinner.
