Lyra and I left Essex, VT for Otakuthon early on Friday, August 5th. After a quick stop at West Meadow Farm for gluten-free bakery treats, I drove northward. With cloudy and occasional misty weather in Vermont, we encountered little traffic and made good time, crossing the border in a startling 35 minutes. From the border to Montreal, the clouds cleared, and the sun shone. Southern Quebec seems strangely flat in comparison to the rippling valleys of New England, and there are many more active farms with silos and grain elevators, neither of which are seen much in my state.
We arrived in Montreal around lunch time, checked in to our favorite hotel, the Travelodge on Boulevard Rene Levesque West, very early, and dropped our stuff in room 411. I think that, with the pandemic, people have temporarily curtailed their activities, so we saw few crowds, even in the city.
Usually we have arrived at Otakuthon in mid-afternoon on Friday, starting our days much later. This time, we enjoyed a leisurely start with a partial circuit of the vendor/dealer room. As usual, I spent most of my time in artist’s alley, chatting with artists whose work I was especially interested in. Pictures follow, mostly from booths where I bought stuff. Vendors show up in booth pics unless otherwise noted.
This year’s badge.Looking into the weirdly shaped hotel room.I slept on the bed with the hot pink pillow. Lyra slept on the other one.View out window showed a bit of Chinatown.The Cheshire Cat, Allison, and Marvin came with me for Alice in Wonderland reenactments.I took pics of all booths where I purchased things. I also asked artists to autograph their prints. I tipped everyone too. Most artists asked me if I was sure I wanted to tip them. One thought I was giving them too much in payment and gave the tip back.
From Bee and Lys, I bought a fanart picture of Madame Bella, a character from the video game Identity V. I have no knowledge of the character or game. I just loved the style, which reminded me of French fin-de-siecle art.
From Catpuccinno Stationery Shop, I got some stickers for @natalunasans, who likes both cats and caffeine. Even the business card and sticker sealing the “oopsie batch” were cute.At Cobalt Lou’s booth, I admired the artist’s interpretation of Mattel’s Monster High characters. Cobalt Lou is NOT in this photo. The vendor sharing the table is at left. Allison, lying on the table, came to the dealer room with me in case there were any doll props that I needed to measure against her. Cobalt Lou was so curious about Allison that he took pictures!
From left to right, top to bottom, we have Frankie Stein x2, Clawdeen Wolf, and Draculaura. Frankie Stein is the daughter of Frankenstein’s monster. Clawdeen is the daughter of the Wolfman. Draculaura is the daughter of Dracula. I hope to commission the artist to do my favorite Monster High character, Ghoulia Yelps [zombie nerd], in a similar midcentury style. I bought a print of Frankie from the 1960s.
I didn’t buy anything from Elderwood Jewelry, but I chatted with the artist. She illustrated her business card, did the embroidery behind some of the pendants, and sculpted the pendants themselves using the lost wax process.I really like the delicately sculpted mushrooms.
The artist also incorporates real dried flowers in some of her work, as can be seen in the little silver teacup, which I have a top-down view of.Well, I was given a postcard, but I insisted on tipping $5.00. I tipped all the artists I bought stuff from because I know that artists undercharge.Kty Illustration had adorable stuff, including the cat with the kitten in the shopping cart, a design unfortunately available only on a canvas bag.
So I got some stickers instead.Little Cake Friends captured my attention with the teddy bear motif, but mostly with the striking notecards containing washi tape art. Here’s the vendor autographing my print.Here’s the vendor’s sister, helping the vendor stay organized!!
I didn’t know I needed a street scene with a fanciful nighttime cupcake until I saw it. Teddy bear stickers were just an added bonus!Pearlesqued Creations had a shop full of wonderful original characters.
I took a shot of the catgirl in spacesuit as a nice example of a Strangely Sexy Spacesuit.The brown-skinned faun, an original character named Freddy, charmed me in sparkly sticker form with her excited squee pose.A larger print of Freddy.
The artist also had some other “monster girls,” as she called them, of which I bought two, plus a mini print of Utena and Anthy for Sarah. I said I was very happy to see brown-skinned original characters, and the artist, being self-described as “very mixed race,” agreed with me about the importance of representation!The seller herself!My favorite artist interaction occurred with Riviere [at left], who was representing the art she does with her girlfriend Wiccamica.I really loved the autumn-toned character on the sign advertising stickers for sale and asked if Riviere had any other pictures of her.There were two prints available of the autumnal character and her girlfriend baking, so I took the opportunity to choose two sticker sheets in colors that would complement the prints. I plan to make my own interpretation of that adorable sign advertising the stickers. Riviere was so surprised and charmed that I expressed such an interest in their OCs, and they were pleased to help me pick out stickers.Riviere and Wiccamica also have a webcomic about two goblin OCs, Flowers and Needles, who are very clearly in WUVS.I didn’t purchase anything from Ron Ron Club [which is French for Purr Club].They did, however, have some cute cat art that I wanted to memorialize.
Shinri-san, seller of my beautiful wire/bead/resin tree that I love as a 1:6 scale prop, was back this year with more trees and pics. The vendor remembered me from several years ago! I said, “Yeah, that was probably because I left a huge tip! ^_^ “I took a pic of my favorite tree, the trans tree.Tawny Illustrations’ booth competed with Catpuccinno Stationery’s for most adorable.The artist had lots of space cats and food cats. I could have spent a half an hour taking pictures of everything, but I just selected a few of my favorite pieces.
I bought a purple holographic space cat miniprint for @natalunasans, who likes cat, purple, shiny things, and scifi.
1 Comment
Could be overwhelming to someone new to the hobby. Cats sure are a big theme.
1 Comment
Could be overwhelming to someone new to the hobby. Cats sure are a big theme.