soybeeftacos:I’m thrilled to finally unveil this portrait of me by the one and only Matt Zeili
soybeeftacos:I’m thrilled to finally unveil this portrait of me by the one and only Matt Zeilinger.For my 50th birthday, my wife wanted to get me something special, and very quickly we realized that I’d always wanted a portrait by Matt, so we set out to commission him to do one. Given how important Netrunner was to me for many years, this seemed like a natural and great opportunity to honor how significant that game was in my life while also, in some ways, putting it in a broader context.Initially, my request was to do something that referenced a pair of my favorite cards, Mushin No Shin and Push Your Luck (RIP, both), as well as something that incorporated the number 50 in some way. In real life, I’m a University professor who teaches Media Studies courses. I realized quickly that if the Android Universe is roughly set in the 2X80s, then it would have been about 30 years since someone of my age had graduated from a University, just like it’s been about 30 years since I did. So, we settled on the “Class of 50″ as a way to nod to my real-life age as well as what someone in my career might have on their wall, were I working at Breaker Bay University or Levy University.The center of the image is clearly me in a pose that should be familiar to most Netrunner players, but the rest of the room really evolved into a cool balance of media clutter. It’s my milieu! I am an obsessive hoarder and also have a million media interests — I’m teaching a course on superhero media in the fall, I regularly teach game design courses and comics creation courses, I hoard Gothic horror movies, I’m getting increasingly interested in my many electric guitars again. The more we talked about the list of things I wanted in the portrait, the more the list grew to include these other things, these parts of my life that really didn’t connect with Netrunner, but were a key part of how I saw this image needing to evolve as it went.So, this didn’t stay a “Netrunner” commission for long. Matt and I exchanged nearly one hundred emails over the past few months, moving this from a card homage into something that reflected, well, me and my life. It’s turned into a real “Cyberfuture Antiquarian Media Professor” portrait, with dozens of references, large and small, peppered throughout, many of which might be only visible on the highest resolution image. Matt was amazing to work with on this part of the commission in particular — he included clever spins on favorite Netrunner cards/experiences, things I made in the Netrunner community, and even contributed some small commentary on the history of the game’s development. Additionally, there are so many media references that every corner of the piece has some meaning to me, atop all the connections to my family, our pets, and even my heritage. Literally every corner of the image has some meaning.I encouraged Matt to find room for his interests as well, as I saw this commission as the opportunity to try to not just dictate what I wanted but actually collaborate with Matt. He brought in media references he enjoyed and also several prominent nods to his favorite Netrunner card art he’d worked on. He was so wonderful to work with and I strongly recommend him to anyone interested in a similar project. My wife tells me that I need to write up a key or legend so our eventual grandkids can figure out what’s all in here.I’m very happy to finally join the club of people who have their own MZ portraits. I’m not actively playing this game very much these days and not really interacting with the community at all these days, so perhaps this is a nice way to cap off about 7-8 years of intense love and frustration with a particular hobby. Like I said, though, this is more than just a Android or Netrunner portrait and is one that, when I step back from it, helps me see this hobby as one important one among a very great many in my life. And that’s something I have to thank Matt for one more time; he was a joy to work with, and I’m really thrilled with our final results. Hope you enjoy looking at it, too. Always nice to see Matt Z’s art (he’s done personal pieces for several community members now), and good to see a longtime player still invested (to a point) -- source link