Mark is our CON NOOGA 2013 Artwork Spotlight Artist


Award-winning artist and illustrator and sculptor Mark Helwig has a style all his own—quirky, creative, occasionally odd, and often humorous. His focus on craftsmanship, storytelling, and images that cause the viewer to “double take” are traits that set him apart in today’s industry. He is equally at home with a wide range of styles ranging from cartoons to photorealism and he works in everything from ink to oils. His illustrations can be found gracing the products of many clients including gaming companies, book and comic book publishers, conventions, and advertising for local businesses. He is a frequent artist guest and panelist at shows and conventions across the southeast, and his work is highly sought by discerning private collectors. He is a graduate of Kennesaw State University and is a member of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists.

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Dubbed "One of the 15 sickest artists in America" by Girls and Corpses Magazine, Dick Starr has embedded himself nicely into the horror community. Add to his bloody drawings a twisted sense of humor, and you'll understand why his early art got sent home by teachers on a regular basis. Since 2004, Dick's work has been featured in numerous galleries, horror/tattoo magazines, books, album covers, and comics around the world. In late 2006, Dick began picking off famous idiots with "The Celebrity Death Poll"...a rotating list of awful celebrities up for an artistic execution. In less than 1 year, The Celebrity Death Poll became a regular feature in almost every issue of Girls and Corpses Magazine since. Currently, Mr. Starr's resume boasts clients from UFC, Full Tilt Poker, and Suicide Girls, to the legendary producer/director Charles Band. If you aren't already familiar with Dick Starr's nightmarish creations...you will be. Consider yourself warned.

WWW.DICKSTARR.NET

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Michael Bielaczyc has been making art his whole life.
He has been selling and showing work since 1995, when he self published his own comic book. Going back to college at 25, he decided that art was going to be his main focus in life.
In 2001, he started an art company, Aradani Studios, with his brother Paul. Together they have shown and worked in shows across America selling both their artwork and costuming. While Michael has worked for such popular role-playing franchises as Dragonlance and Castlemourn, his real passion is for his personal work. He works in mediums from oil paint to latex prosthetics, video to graphite. You can see his work at www.michaelbielaczyc.com and his writing at www.worldofuteria.com.

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I have been drawing and whatnot since as long as I can remember.  Any spot in my school notebooks that didn't have notes were filled with sketches. I drew everything imaginable from the D&D adventures that my brother ran, to fantasy books I read, to every character on Animaniacs. Unfortunately when I was in high school I focused on my grades (ie. being a nerd), so I didn't have much time for art. However the summer after graduating, I did two pieces of art based on Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara and spent about 30 hours on each. That was the first time I had ever dedicated so much time to individual pieces of art, and the end result excited me.

When I got to college I dual majored in Computer Science and Art History, only because my school didn't offer a major in Studio Art. I took as many art classes as my schedule allowed though. I seemed to be pursuing a career in art or art education, but decided to try graduate school in Computer Science instead.  I graduated in 2004 with a Master's in CS, but again switched paths and returned to my art interests. Mike, my brother, wanted to start up a company selling our artwork. And so in 2002 we founded Aradani Studios, a costuming and art company that started off small, but soon grew. We travel mostly in the Southeast United States, to various conventions and Renaissance Festivals, selling our art, and our elf ears.

I currently call Nashville my home, and don't see that changing for quite some time. This is where my friends, my family, and my career is. When I first posted this bio, I said that, "I still have no idea what I want to do with my life." Well, since writing that, I think I have found my calling. At the age of 26, I won the most prestigious fantasy art award there is, the Chesley Award. Mike and I have slowly but steadily grown this business into something that now employees other people! And most importantly, I love what I do, and I truly enjoy being able to talk about my art with people and have a dialogue with them.

And I owe all of this to my brother. Without him, I don't know where I would be today, but it wouldn't be here. And I hope he always remembers that I am grateful to him.

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From an early age, Lindsay declared that she was going to be an artist.  After seeing her grandfather’s regret at not pursuing his talent, she vowed to use her gift.  In elementary school she made copies of her early work with her father’s xerox copier and sold them for change to buy ice cream.  During her high school years she continued her entrepreneurial endeavors by scultping figurines, painting T-Shirts, and painting items to sell at Pow Wows.  In 1999 Lindsay graduated with honors from The Art Institute of Atlanta and returned to her hometown in search of work, where she worked for an advertising company known as Third Wave Digital until she took a teaching position at Macon Technical College where she taught art and originated their 3D program After observing successful artists, Lindsay took the leap to professional full time artist in the fall of 2003.  Traveling to conventions around the country selling and promoting her artwork along with the work of other artists, Lindsay emerged on the fantasy/scifi scene. In 2004 Lindsay was one of Larry Elmore's first art camp students, and with what she learned it took her artwork to the next level.
Not long afterward, Lindsay began illustrating for Margaret Weis Productions, and her artwork was featured in role-playing such as the Serenity RPG, DragonLance RPG, Battlestar Galactica RPG, and the Supernatural RPG.  Through the years she has been prolific in both illustration and her own fantasy artwork. To learn more about the artist and her work visit www.lindsayarcher.com.  Prints are available through http://linzarcher.deviantart.com.

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Sam Flegal has been fascinated by the strange from a very young age. Fortunately for his budding creativity, he was raised in a household that encouraged his interest in all things weird—Sam’s father was a magician and his mother a ventriloquist and clown.

As an illustrator for both book covers and games, Sam describes his art as “stylized realism,” portraying fantastical things in a graphic manner, with an eye towards real life. Sam works in oil paint. In 2012 Sam received the Gen Con Juror’s Choice Award for his work on Warhammer. He has also done numerous cards for Legend of the Five Rings.

Sam also does Zombie Portraits, where he takes your photo and draws a picture of you as a zombie!
 

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Born in Ohio and currently living in Woodstock Ga.  Tammy is an award winning published artist. She has been a freelance artist for the past 5 years. Growing up she was always doing arts and crafts and anything creative.  She also worked at Fenton Art Glass Co. for 5 years as a decorator, during that time she did hand painting on all typed of glass ware including things such as bells, baskets and lamp shades.  Several years later her boyfriend found an old forgotten sketch that had been done for a craft project.  Seeing the talent in it he sent her to an art class with the famed Larry Elmore.  Since then she has attended many of his art classes and continues to grow and develop her skills.  Tammy prefers to work in traditional mediums, her favorite being pencils; she also likes oil painting along with digital. She has also recently discovered polymer clay and has been creating fun little 3D creatures in this medium.

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Jean Alexander is a professional artist with over 20 years’ experience in a variety of media, including oils, watercolors, acrylic, and even the occasional fresco. She’s been a successful  architectural illustrator since 1994, but her favorite subject matter by far is people, hence her love of portraiture. In addition to being an artist, Jean is also a huge sci-fi and fantasy geek, and has had a wonderful  time for the past few years creating art which commemorates, sometimes in a humorous way, her favorite sci-fi and fantasy characters, most notably from Star Wars and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. In speaking of her Harry Potter series of portraits, Jean said, “ I am so enamored of J.K. Rowling’s story, its message(s), its characters, and the richness of the world in which it’s set, that I wanted to try to translate some of the emotion and intensity into paint. I love these characters so much, and when I’m painting them, I feel their emotions and the essence of their characters and hope that it comes through in the finished paintings. “ Jean hopes that her artwork will be enjoyed by all who view it.

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Johnathon Brock is a geek of-all-trades with interests ranging from Aliens to Zombies and everything in between.  He is currently working on The Vac, an online science fiction graphic novel. He's also putting the finishing touches on an old school point-and-click adventure game that he hopes to launch this year.
Betsy Brock is a cartoonist and freelance artist. She is the creator of the absurd webcomic FRUIT! She loves webcomics,
pineapples and puppies.
In 2012 they formed Pink Pineapple Ink, a studio to house their various comics and video games projects. They currently reside in Nashville, TN and run their business out of their basement studio inhabited by a silly pair of dogs--one unusually big and one oddly small.

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I’m Hillary, and I’m a social worker, jewelry artist, dancer and hippie. I can’t really say much about boardgaming because I am not really a boardgamer. I play games so I can balance purple meeples on top of each other and create sculptures with dice, but that shouldn’t be surprising given that I am on staff at a board-gaming blog and I only ever write about t-shirts and waffles.
Actually, I am one of those rarest of rare creatures: a female gamer. Being a girly girl means that I always play with pink or purple, that I do, in fact, create unique and amazing sculptures out of games bits, and that I LOVE pretty games. However, being across the table from me means never knowing when I am going to dismantle that architectural masterpiece made of Agricola fences and turn it into a pasture the size of your head. I may seem quiet, gentle, and frilly but there is actually some thought going on behind those glitter-covered eyes, and it usually involves kicking your ass, especially if you are my husband. What I love about gaming is that it’s always new: there’s always new game to play, a new strategy to try, new people to meet, new places to go, and new sculptures to create.

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J.R. Mounts and Christopher Collins reside near Atlanta GA where they have written and drawn their own comics for Scairy Tales Noir since 2010. Beginning with their ‘Scairy Tales’ comic strip (think “Calvin & Hobbes meets Nightmare Before Christmas”) and continuing with a pulp crime parody,’Fried Pickle Noir’ (think “Sin City meets Veggie Tales”) they do it all for the fun of it and are constantly creating more fun projects like ‘Family Mal-Use’ and ‘Death by Baby’. Their website and Facebook for Scairy Tales Noir offers comics, coloring books, stickers, greeting cards and MORE under their new ON THREE PRODUCTIONS banner!