Hey everybody,
Here’s a quick and funny story. Way back in the day, like so many recent art school graduates, I had a job at an art supply store. The pay was pretty sucky, but often when they were going to throw stuff out, I’d get to take it home (usually because the jar was broken, so I’d have to use it that very night). Plus, there were some pretty great people I got to work with (including one who ended up becoming my brother-in-law). One of these great people was Tamera King, an excellent painter in her own right. The best part of being surrounded with great artists is that at Christmas and on your birthday, you were pretty much guaranteed to get something really cool. Some of my favourite artwork on the walls of my home I got from people I worked with at the art store.
My pal Tamera and I had a healthy appreciation for sci-fi in common, so one Christmas (or was it a birthday? I can’t remember) I drew her a picture of her favourite starship captain, one Jean-Luc Picard (artist note: this was the first ink drawing I did with a 107 brass nib, rather than the 102 steel nib I was more accustomed to working with--107s are great to work with, but wear out a lot quicker) which she liked very much.
Little did I know how much she liked that drawing. All these years later, in 2012, Sir Patrick Stewart (who played the ultra-villainous Karla in the amazing Smiley’s People, btw) made an appearance at the Calgary Expo, and Tamera had the opportunity to meet one of her heroes.
Out of all the things she could have gotten signed, Tamera chose to bring along my drawing of Patrick Stewart, which he signed, and deemed to be “very good”. Do you agree?
