Hello! I know I -never- update, and honestly, I don't even know if I have any active watchers anymore.... And really, this won't matter much to artists outside of Alberta/Edmonton or people planning on attending Animethon but... Meh, it's nice to get a rant out every once in a while~

I'll start off on a lighter note. was up this weekend so I got to hang out with her~ It was so nice to be able to see her without the crazyness of a convention going on around XD. I bought her old button maker off her too. Well, I can't really say I bought the button maker, more like I paid for the button supplies and she threw in the maker for free, but still. Quite excited, and I am working on a few sets actually. I think I may end up having to buy more buttons if I'm not able to get the money together to buy that bigger one that will make buttons and keychains and other nifty things.

Also! Commissions are available through Paypal! (or through a subscription~ <3 Or perhaps a trade!) I think I'll only open five spots since I usually tend to over-load myself.
$10 USD for fullbody sketch
$30 USD for full colour
$50 USD for full colour+background

And here comes the rant.

As many people who know of Animethon are aware of, there was a huge debate going on about the system used in artist alley. There was a big petition going on, which was OVERLY successful, as well as a poll on the forums of Anime-Alberta which was also quite successful in favour of a flat rate system for the tables of Artist Alley. I won't go into too many details as I think there is probably enough of these rants going around, but I will say I am infinetly frustrated.
The coordinator of artist alley handed out suggestion sheets at the end of last year. I stated on my sheet that I was severely disappointed by the fact that there was no cap on the amount of profit that was taken from the artists, and that I was not pleased with the ticket system but it would be easier to deal with if there was atleast a cap on the amount taken from an artist. There was also a number of artists who filled them out in a similar way.
This year, with artist alley under the same coordinator, the system was mapped out to work the same as it had last year with no cap and a ticket system. There was a number of artists other than myself who stated that they completely disagreed with this system, the coordinator agreed to put a cap on the amount taken if it was possible to get at least 36 signatures on a petition by April 26th. With 1,354 at the time of this posting I would consider that OVERLY successful. However apparently this was not good enough, and a poll was opened on the anime-alberta forum asking everyone's opinion on the two systems and which they thought would work better. With 43-10 at the time of this posting in favor of a flat rate system I would again consider this overly successful. It was posted on March 3rd in the 'minutes' which recapped the meeting on February 28th that the ticket system would still be in place and that the coordinator had no plans of placing a cap on the profits.
Despite both the poll and petition working out in favor of the artists the coordinator submitted his contract to ASAPA who approved it just yesterday. In the contract it clearly states that they will still be using the ticket system, and that there will be no cap in place.
I am incredibly frustrated with this because it appears as though the coordinator flat out lied to the artists. He had nearly a year to ponder the thought of a new system, considering the number of artists that said they did not like the system last year but chose not to because of the profits the alley brought Animethon. I don't know if he plans on following through with his word and amending the contract when the agreement comes to a close on April 26th but at this point it really does not seem like it.
However, I would be interested in selling in the dealers room with other artists. Since Animethon is selling booths and not just tables, we are able to do what we wish with the space we purchase, which means we would be able to bring extra tables. One booth split between, say 6 artists would be just over $50 per artist. As I am with a company with a legitimate business license and would be willing to purchase my own if they were not willing to sell, we should receive no trouble from the coordinators from the dealers room.
If anyone is interested, or knows of other artists planning to sell in the dealers room please send me a message!