Interview: Meg Frank

Congratulations to Meg Frank, Hugo nominee for Best Fan Artist!


Creating jewelry, paintings, and everything in between, Frank's immersive artwork communicates feelings that can't be expressed in words. With a varied portfolio, their work spans nature inspired watercolors, abstract paintings that make galaxies and nebulae look close enough to touch, and functional, wearable jewelry, and many pieces that fall in between, such as the cover art for Journey Planet 45 - The Matrix.   Frank works on many projects within SFF fandom and publishing, including volunteering at many a convention, and curating the fiction in Fireside's forthcoming anthology Hope in This Timeline.

In 2019,  Frank did a series of pieces inspired by This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. In 2019 they also discovered alcohol inks for painting, and the artwork became a brighter, more fun, and sometimes glittery place.   A fan of glitter, fantastic hair and even more fantastic outfits, you can follow Frank on twitter (and see tons of their artwork and other great photos!) at @peripateticmeg.

Frank was kind enough to chat with me about their inspirations,  going on an art creation binge after reading This is How You Lose the Time War, growing up surrounded by genre and the star strewn skies of the Midwest, creating art that speaks volumes without a word, and more.  In spite of what they say, I am still convinced that Frank's studio spaces look like a glorious swirling galaxy, or perhaps maybe a magician's secret room.

Let's get to the the interview!


NOAF: What media do you typically work in? How did you first get started working with these materials?

Meg Frank: I've never met a medium that I didn't like, but you'll most often find me working with paints and jewelry. I started really focusing on painting as a hobby in 2014 while I was living abroad and sort of couldn't stop. Watercolors were first, then oils, inks (with brushes then pens) and most recently alcohol inks with resin and other inclusions.

Jewelry came a few years later - in 2017 my partner Sara Eileen, an extremely talented multi-media artist who made the porcelain for To The Moon and Back, took me bead shopping and I was hooked. I'd been playing with very basic wire flowers before then and silk was a revelation in terms of speed - knotting pearls is incredibly meditative work for me. I took a wire class from Elise Matthesen in 2018, whom I grew up watching making the most fabulous things, and I have to say it's an incredible honor to be nominated with them. I've always loved jewelry, it's a shiny, somewhat daily deliberation on how to present ones self. I feel terribly lucky to be able to work with Hillary Monahan and Becky Chambers of The Peculiarity Shop. They are both fantastic artists and Hillary is a boss with Etsy which allows me to focus on juggling so many mediums.

NOAF: How would you describe your art style?

MF: I would describe my art style as colorful. I go in a lot of different directions in terms of styles and mediums to express different attitudes, but my use of color is pretty consistent. Also, it has been noted on several occasions that a significant amount of my art includes glitter.

NOAF: What led you to create art that speaks to science fiction and fantasy fans?

MF: I think being raised by science fiction and fantasy fans probably did most of the trick. As a kid I was surrounded by (but not actually paying close attention to) media like Star Wars and Star Trek and Rocky Horror. I watched The Return of the King nab eleven Oscars when I was thirteen years old, and the Marvel reboot (Iron Man, 2008) came out the year before I graduated high school. Much of the media that in decades past would have been considered weird or dorky built just as much of my understanding of beauty as Annie Leibovitz’s photos or John Singer Sargent’s portraits.

Journey Planet 45 - The Matrix

NOAF: Do you have a piece or grouping of pieces in your Hugo voter packet that is especially meaningful to you? Can you tell us the story behind it?

MF: A number of the pieces that I made last year were very much influenced by This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone which is on the ballot this year and I cannot recommend enough. A very good friend smuggled me an ARC in March of 2019 and my brain was absolutely consumed. At 2’x4’ It Only Stings A Little is the largest wire piece I have ever done by a considerable margin - most of my previous work was necklace size, and it came tumbling out of my brain in about a week. Dark Blue, Dark Blue; My Careful Cardinal; The Garden Grows; and The Last Bloom are all nods to that story. There are many, many more.

Also, Be Still My Heart is me trying really, really hard to impress my partners and as I've been told it worked, I'm rather fond of it.

"It Only Stings A Little"

NOAF: What are your inspirations for your artwork?

MF: I would say that most of my work, the work that I love the most, comes from trying to express feelings that I just don't have words for. I can't say it, but I've got to say it somehow, and it turns out that I can get a lot of it out in color. Any time I'm overwhelmed with feelings (hey 2020!) I go looking for a paintbrush or silk.

I'm deeply interested in creating art that explores 'home' and all of the beautifully different and complicated ways home is built.

NOAF: Many of your paintings have these incredibly lush, velvety black edges that bleed into the abstract colors. Can you tell us a little about how you get this beautiful effect?

MF: I wish I had a more exciting for the how part of the this question beyond "I pour a lot of ink on the edge of the canvas and the floor," but that’s mostly it! Merging the colors is done by tilting the frames and boards I paint on as well as blowing through straws and several other pretty basic but silly to observe techniques. The why is more compelling to me - I grew up watching the stars in rural Minnesota and other parts of the Midwest with dark skies and that feeling of immersion is deeply comforting to me.

NOAF: You paint, you do beadwork, you do metal jewerly, I've got to ask, what does your studio/workspace look like? (My imagination is telling me your studio looks like a glorious swirling galaxy, but that can't be true, can it?)

MF: Due to the adventure that is living in New York I’'ve actually just split my workspaces so I'm no longer doing as much of my work at home. I keep most of my beadwork in the city, but I've moved a significant portion of my painting supplies to a place upstate where I have more room to work and don't have to worry as much about spilling permanent materials on the floor.

My beads are slowing creeping from my desk at home to adjacent counters and key bowls in a very lovely subtle sparkly way whereas my painting studio looks like there was a glitter explosion in a basement that is half library and half art supply store. There is work everywhere. Books and letters are tucked in around various projects and supplies. Possibly a significant amount of paint on the floor. Also, a hammock and a cat on a heating pad. It’s one of my favorite places in the entire world.

NOAF: Your studio spaces sound like heaven on earth! Meg, thank you so much for this wonderful interview!


POSTED BY: Andrea Johnson lives in Michigan with her husband and too many books. She can be found on twitter, @redhead5318 , where she posts about books, food, and assorted nerdery.

Interview: Ariela Housman

Congratulations to Ariela Housman, for her Hugo nomination for best fan artist!

Ariela Housman discovered her love of calligraphy at a young age.  While still a teenager, she interned at an art studio that specialized in Judaica artwork.  She's been doing freelance calligraphy and scifi-fantasy freelance artwork ever since, often combining the two.   In 2015, Housman and her best friend Terri Ash started Geek Calligraphy,  where most of Housman's artwork is currently displayed and available for purchase.  Ash is happy to take the blame for Housman's recent addiction to steampunk.

In her artwork, Housman combines traditional inked calligraphy with very modern sayings and slogans, as can be seen in her Geeky Professional Oaths artwork, and if you're looking for something that appears even more old fashioned, look no further than her Illuminated First pages.  She combines words that published within the last few years, with artwork styles that have been taught for centuries.

In 2019, Housman and Ash proposed changes to the rules for the Hugo award for best fan artist, specifically, what counts as "on display"?   What if artists are unable to attend events, where their artwork will be on display?  Does going viral on twitter count as "on display"?  As the ways in which fans interact with artwork changes, shouldn't our rules change to match?

Housman was kind enough to answer my nerdy questions about how she got started in calligraphy, training to be  calligrapher of Jewish marriage documents (Ketubot) and other Judaica, why the current rules for the Hugo for best Fan Artist should be amended, and much more.

Let's get to the interview!



NOAF: What media do you typically work in? (paints, pen and ink, digital, mixed media, etc) How did you first get started working with these materials?

Ariela Housman: I usually work in ink and watercolor. I have been working with both of them since age 10. My parents bought me a set of watercolor pencils for my 10th birthday, and I got my first calligraphy lesson in art class at my school the same year.

NOAF: How would you describe your art style?

AH: When I am not working with pure calligraphy, I gravitate to art nouveau.

NOAF: What led you to create art that speaks to science fiction and fantasy fans?

AH: I started my professional art career as a calligrapher of Jewish marriage documents (ketubot), which are usually decorated with art as well as nice writing. In the space of 18 months, I got two requests for ketubot with Star Trek art, one for Star Wars, one for zombies, and one for Steampunk. I realized there was an extremely niche market that was unfilled and got to work. Eventually I started doing other art prints that were not marriage documents.

NOAF: Do you have a piece or grouping of pieces in your Hugo voter packet that is especially meaningful to you? Can you tell us the story behind it?

AH: "Lady Astronaut Nouveau" and "Dragon Naturalist Nouveau" are, in some senses, a set. Both feature Jewish women who fought for their right to be included and recognized in their field. It was a privilege to get to work in the universes of authors whose work I had greatly enjoyed and to get to put my own interpretation of their characters out there with their blessing.

NOAF: How did Geek Calligraphy get started? How do you come up with all the funny (and serious) phrases? And . . . am I seeing the train cars from Ticket to Ride on the "Families that Game Together" print??

AH: When I was 17, I apprenticed at Caspi Cards and Art. That's where I learned to write ketubot. Mickie Caspi, the artist, told me that the secret to her success in the business was that she had a partner who managed the business side of things. Geek Calligraphy was founded on that model, with me as the artist and my best friend, Terri Ash, as the business manager. Terri used to work at a Judaica store where she handled most of their orders for ketubot, so she knows about the retail end of things that I don't. We have complementary skill sets. Getting to work with my best friend was a happy bonus.

When working on one of our Oaths, I tend to email a bunch of people in the relevant field and ask them to tell me about some of the common frustrations in their vocation/hobby/calling. I try to turn those into short, humorous sentences and then run them by my "test audience" again for feedback. The Judaica quotes tend to be something I come up with and run by Terri.

And yes, those are Ticket to Ride train cars in the "Families that Game" print. There are also a meeple from Carcassone, a settlement token and a city token from Catan, some Monopoly pieces, and many more.

NOAF: I was thrilled to see that you do Ketubot, I wish I knew about you when my husband and I were getting ready to get married! I am so fascinated by contemporary religious calligraphic artwork! Is there special training or certification involved with making Ketubot and Mezuzah parchments?

AH: There is no certification necessary to make ketubot. As long as the officiant of the wedding is okay with the text, you're good. Mezuzot, on the other hand, are subject to a lot of strictures in Jewish law (halaḥah) about how they are written, on what, with what, etc. The term for someone who can write mezuzot, as well as the parchments of tefillin and Torah scrolls is "Sofer/et ST"aM," which stands for Sifrei torah, Tefillin, Mezuzot. Sofer is the male title, Soferet is the female title; Hebrew is a gendered language and totally fails at anything gender-neutral. There is no formal accreditation program for that; you apprentice with an experienced Sofer/et and when they say that you are ready to begin work, then you do. I did my apprenticeship for STa"M with Soferet Jen Taylor Friedman.

NOAF:  You run Geek Calligraphy with Terri Ash, and at Worldcon in Dublin in 2019, Terri submitted a very important amendment that could drastically change the rules in regards to what artwork is Hugo eligible. Can you tell us about the amendment, and what led Terri to submit it?

AH: The current rules for the Best Fan Artist category are ambiguous. They read:

The work by which artists should be judged is not limited to material published in fanzines. Material for semiprozines or material on public displays (such as in convention art shows) is also eligible.

This can be read narrowly, that only work in fanzines, semiprozines, and convention art shows is eligible, or widely, that anything "on public display" is eligible. When I was nominated last year, I was told by the Hugo Administrator that Lady Astronaut Nouveau could not be submitted in my portfolio for the 2019 Hugo Awards as it had only been displayed on the internet, not in a convention art show. "I'm afraid that the rules exclude pieces that have only been displayed online" was the exact quote.

We both found the idea that the internet did not count as a public display to be ludicrous. Terri put together that amendment as a band-aid on that particular problem.

Both of us agree that the Fan Artist and Professional Artist categories need to be seriously updated. As you may have noticed, I sell my art, but I am eligible in the Best Fan Artist category rather than the Best Professional Artist category. The category definition for Best Professional Artist refers to the definition of "professional" further up the page, but that definition only lays out what professional means for publications, not for individuals, leaving the impression that only art published in one of those publications is professional. Redefining the Best Professional Artist and Best Fan Artist categories entirely was too big a task for Terri to manage before the 2019 Worldcon, so Terri put this forward as a stop-gap fix.

NOAF: thank you so much!

POSTED BY: Andrea Johnson lives in Michigan with her husband and too many books. She can be found on twitter, @redhead5318 , where she posts about books, food, and assorted nerdery.