The All Time Ultimate Goal
Whilst sharing my art with the world, gaining recognition, and maybe even making some money are all important goals behind Padlilly, they are not The Goal (capital T, capital G).
And if I a completely honest, it is The Goal that has really motived me to start all of this.
But I am almost scared to put The Goal out there.
Ok here goes.
…
IreallywanttohaveastandinartistalleyatMCMLondon
…
Phew, there we go, its out there. The Goal. I really want to have a stand in Artist Alley at MCM London.
MCM Comic Con London
According to Wikipedia, MCM Comic Con London “is a speculative fiction fan convention” (thanks for that Wikipedia).
It is held twice a year, May and October, for 3 days at a time, and sees over 100,000 visitors over the three days. And it. is. AWESOME.
My sister and I have been going to MCM since 2014. Here we are some photos of us at recent ones below (I am on the right in both!) ((If you can guess the cosplay, I am impressed!))
MCM has so much awesome stuff - shopping, panels, photos and autos, workshops and so so much more.
As you can imagine, it has changed a lot over the the years (overall for the better imho). One of my favourite changes is how much Artist Alley has grown.
Artist Alley
From MCM’s website, Artist Alley is described as:
“The Artist Alley at MCM Comic Con is your opportunity to meet, chat with, and purchase art from independent artists and creators. You’ll find prints, sketches, original artwork, comics, and more. You can even get some artwork commissioned!
The Artist Alley is a great place to discover new talent, as well as support existing creators who are just starting out!”
Funnily enough, the organisers have described it pretty well. It has become my favourite part of MCM. The artwork there is so incredible and varied, and it has become the key place where I get art prints. It feels great to know you are purchasing original art directly from independent artists.
But the growth of Artist Alley has had an interesting side effect. Because as I became more aware of it, and dedicated more time to it, I started to think.
Having a stall would be seriously cool.
And then I thought
Hey, my artwork might be good enough to be here.
And then, of course, as soon as I thought that my inner critic quickly shut it down, because of course it wasn’t good enough.
This cycle happened for a few years, with my poor sister having to listen to me talk myself in circles about it, always getting to the point of dismissing the dream.
times they are a’changing
May ‘24 would have ended up being exactly the same cycle, I am sure, except there was one key change. For this con, I brought my daughter M with me. We cosplayed together, shopped together and played games together
We also visited Artist Alley together, and I found myself mentioning to her how one day I would love to have my own stand at Artist Alley. And because I was talking to her, mum mode came over me a bit. Instead of leaning into the self critic and self doubt, I found myself talking to her about how it would be hard, and I would have to do a lot of work to be eligible, but that I could start by putting my art out there.
And, being the lovely cheerleader she is (both figurative and literally), she thought it was an absolutely brilliant idea.
Making it THe Goal
Of course, one (albeit delightful) conversation with my daughter doesn’t magically change everything. The self-doubt is still very much there, as are the practical hurdles of building an audience and becoming an artist that can get through the competitive process of joining MCM Comic Con.
But it gave me the boost I needed to switch it from a dream to a goal, The Goal, and make my first step towards it.
So here I am, launching my art to the world, hoping that people will be interested in it. And if they aren’t, trying to learn and change and grow from that.
I really hope that it will be the first step to making The Goal a reality.
- Padlilly
Photo of Catherine taken by marvelous M!
