Bilbo and Frodo's Birthday Party

[page 3] <Handwritten: the fan art magazine> <Handwritten: Silme 1> <Handwritten: Editorial> Bjo Trimble Considering the overwhelming tasks of recovering from a convention, being wardrobe mistress on a genuine movie job, and moving -- all within the space of two months; we figure it as quite amazing that this magazine is in your hands at all. Also considering that less than half of you who are now reading this magazine have subscribed to it, or in any way helped to achieve its publication, it may be a while before you see another issue. We hope that you _read_ the check-marked spaces on the mailing page, and act accordingly, for we will _not_ continue this generosity. This first issue of a fan-art magazine is the joint effort of many people in and around Mathom House; Adrienne Martine, Steve Tolliver, Jack Harness, Ron Ellik, Al Lewis, Fred Patten, and the dearest, most wonderful person who ever balked at slip-sheeting a 40-page fanzine: John Griffin Trimble. With their help, I have tried to present something which we hope will grow as the art show itself, into a fine, self-supporting, and interesting magazine _for_ and _by_ the fan-artist. Any assistance that non-artists care to offer will be gratefully accepted, also. Herein are points to ponder, lessons to learn about stencilling artwork, ideas, questions, and something new in the way of art contests; read SILME and enjoy yourself. Tell others about the magazine, _and_ the art show, and send me new addresses of interested people; fans, artists, or not. The Project Art Show bulletins, PAS-tell, will still come out at intervals between quarterly publications of SILME; whenever news of any import has to be imparted to interested (i.e. subscribing) artists, there will be an issue of PAS-tell. With help from Ron and John, we will even start a regular numbering system for both PAS-tell, the bulletin -- and SILME, the art magazine. SILME means "starlight" in _Quenya_, and is the name of the _Tengwar_ letter "s"; this being the spoken and written language of the elven folk in J R R Tolkien's _The Lord of The Rings_. It has no special meaning, except that of being a lovely name. Some of you may wonder about about all the money that's being asked of you; what with commissions of sales, entry fees, and subscriptions for SILME and PAS-tell. This is the only way we can keep it the way you want it: no tight organization of artists, regimented and disciplined and dues- paying to support the art show _and_ a magazine. Therefore, the magazine and news bulletins MUST pay for themselves without the aid of a club fund -- hence the demand for subscriptions. This is very handy in one respect -- non-artists and fans who would not be participating in the art show may [page 4] subscribe to the magazine and keep track of things they find interesting without getting involved with an "art-group". The art show must also pay for itself, and until now the artist who sold his work was the only participant who paid for the glory, chance for prizes, and possible professional sales that was shared by everyone -- including the Not For Sale and the priced-way-beyond-reason people. With the advent of the entry fee, we hope to tax everyone in the show equally. The Not For Sale people can keep their artwork with a clear @concience@ and the knowledge that they are contributing something for the time and space spent for their work at the show. The priced-way-beyond-reason people are tapped for some of the cost of the art show -- which they could have virtuously avoided by pointing out that "after all, their work _was_ for sale, but if no one chose to buy...." And the For Sale work is taxed no further than the normal commission, @it@ it exceeds the entry fee. The decision to institute this fee was reached after long discussion with many artists, and while the actual price set for this show may not be, in the long run, the most workable fee possible, we are at least setting out in the right direction. Certainly if anyone has any objections I hope they voice them instead of just withdrawing from the show; we can't get anywhere without knowing what people want. From that point, we can only hope to hit some sort of median and hope that some of you are good losers on a point or two. Now, as Art Hayes puts @is@, "the interest of those in charge of PAS is expanding, a concrete indication of belief that the handling of PAS has been standardized to some extent, that the child's steps taken by PAS have now matured sufficiently to allow an expansion into other areas. It means that PAS is now an unqualified success and that it has confidence that future exhibitions are also to be successful. Having achieved this pinnacle of success, the managers of PAS now want more headaches to solve." This is a pretty good introduction to our new <word is crossed out: headache> project; the photo salon. We are forming it in the same way that this whole project was formed; asking people their opinions, ideas and wants, and trying to find a happy medium which will make a fine show for all. If you have anything to say about this new project, please do so. As soon as the rules are formulated, a bulletin will be released. Artists may relax in the knowledge that photography and other art will be kept as separate parts of the show. But it is high time that the shutterbugs in fandom had their chance to show off! Ron Ellik has taken an interest in getting the information of all past shows, publications, and such into some sort of order, and making up a guide to follow so that we may make some fine records of each show as we go along. This is a very good idea; something I have had on my mind for some time and tried to start on by sending address lists out so that people could at least contact one another. Still, we need a good guide for putting on an art show -- just in case -- and Ron is willing to set it up for us; will you people help him by sending in the photos he asks for in "Archivesville"? We are not _really_ an unqualified success as yet, @tho@ we do appreciate Art Hayes' kind words, but we are trying @out@ best to achieve that enviable position with Project Art Show. One of the things we are trying to do now [page 36] fillos are welcomed (less than a quarter-page in size), if it is understood that the art will go into a morgue and may not be used immediately. If the art contest in this issue goes over, we will have quarterly @cntests@, with prizes (promised for this year by Al Lewis). The descriptions of characters and actions are for the benefit of people who may not be able to obtain the book. If these pages could be put to better use by simply listing the books, and page numbers of suggested actions to illo, we could also have several contests each quarter. It would be nice to have a fantasy and a science fiction story each time; if you want to take your own chances of finding the books in question. Fanzine editors who are interested in gleaning the goodies brought forth by these contests might send a letter to me. The sponsoring party of a contest has first publishing rights to the artwork submitted, but this in no way means that full ownership of the artwork ever leaves the artists, unless he willingly sells or gives away the original. We will _not_ simply hand out artwork to anyone who asks for it; the publisher will have to show not only interest, but also perfectly acceptable reproduction of artwork to its best advantage. If you have a special reason for promoting a contest (such as the "Doc Smith" issue of Shangri-L'Affaires that is planned), then by all means submit your ideas to SILME. Artists, what would you like to illo? The entry blank is a new idea; and probably seems like a lot of extra trouble to you, but until you have handled a hundred or more works of art _plus_ hundreds of sketches, there really has been little trouble in your life. Ron Ellik designed it, and we will probably find many "bugs" in this prototype of an entry blank; bit by bit we will work things out and end up with a fine piece of paper which will help us administrators of the art show immeasurably. It will be much less trouble to us to keep sending out more entry blanks and _end up with a good record of the next show_ than it will be trouble to sort @thru@ artwork and scratch-paper notations of hand- written letters and simply _hope_ that we have everything on hand that you sent. So please take that extra time and trouble; you are disqualified from the show without an entry form or facsimile for _each_ piece of art. Speaking of contests, the Fellowship of the Ring is offering a prize for illos from _The Hobbit_; all rules on page 27, including the deadline. Next quarter, they will want illos from the first book of the Trilogy. Here it is; SILME, your fan art magazine. I hope you like it .... Bjo.