Hello Jess,
I also do not wish for uproar, but perhaps a little clarity about what I slave over for far, far too many unpaid hours might give you some solace.
This will seem like a bit of a ramble, but stick with it.
Firstly, it is now hard to ignore ConFuzzled's position on the world stage. Despite the vast majority of attendees being from the UK, we have attendees from so many different nations and have staff, crew and volunteers from across Europe. We are grateful for that support and we love that our appeal has stretched beyond the borders of our country.
You cannot simply place an arbitrary ring fence around the creativity of the community because
good art is good art.
When it comes to approaching artists for certain parts of the book, I, and the others involved (there are just three of us in the conbook team), don't go looking specifically for 'UK artists' - we just go looking for 'artists'. We like to see art that just fits right - the artist has a skill for producing the right tone, if they don't happen to be from the UK, why should we be prejudiced against them for that?
This year, we reached out to far fewer artists specifically for artwork and relied heavily on the strength of submissions - and we pick what works best with zero regard to their attendance or nationality. In fact, we approached only five artists directly for work in the book - and one of those was a Guest of Honour (so they probably don't count).
Let me run through the artists in this year's book for you:
Johis, Finland/UK. Requested.
Garnet, UK. Submitted.
EosFoxx, Germany. Requested.
Silverfox5213, Malaysia. Requested.
Footpaws, UK. Submitted.
Neonpossum, UK. Submitted.
Pan Hesekiel Shiroi, Germany. Submitted.
Gab, USA. Requested.
Gem. UK. Submitted.
Top Dog, UK. Submitted.
Lay0wn, The Netherlands. Requested.
Michael Philip, UK. Submitted.
Princess Rei, USA. Submitted.
KeenyFox, UK. Submitted.
Vulpon, UK. Submitted.
Ultrafox, UK. Submitted.
Well, there's a pattern: in 2013, we requested art from foreigners. That's fairly coincidental and just happened to be the case this year, but like previous years we've always gone for the artist that suits what we're wanting to achieve (my favourite example of this is the Alien piece from the 2012 conbook - done by SpiritRaptor (UK) - I don't know many folk off the top of my head that could have done what he did).
We're delighted that so many people submit work to us and in some cases do so without being able to attend. But there are only 48 pages to fill, and sadly we must put in a timetable, events list, rules, charity profile, GoH profiles, staff credits and the little hat-tips we do to other conventions. That does not leave a lot of room for artwork - and if we tried to cram in everything we get sent, that would not have the space to present the pieces we do select with the respect they deserve.
What strikes me as the saddest part of your post is that you perceive a bias against UK artists, when we actually have a bias
towards artists as a whole.
On page 43 of the 2013 conbook, there is a short personal note from me - the second half of it reads:
The Editor also would like to thank all the artists that submitted work for the conbook this year; without your amazing contributions, this book wouldn't look half as good. Even those whose art couldn't fit, your work was looked at and appreciated - keep doing what you do.
Thank you, all of you.
That is a heartfelt comment from someone that believes passionately in the creativity of this community as a whole, and just because you are disappointed about not making it in this year, will not diminish that good vibe I feel towards an astoundingly talented pool of people who devote so much of their time and skill to their work. You included.
To reiterate, I'm not prepared to turn away talented people based solely on their nationality. That way madness lies.
Maybe this post hasn't changed how you feel, but at least it might clarify things for you.
As a footnote, Blotch has never been in the ConFuzzled conbook.
