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| On November 29, the Convent in Philadelphia was flush with the amazing artwork of Martin McCoy and Ellie (Jo) Livingston. |
The Convent is one of the coolest art galleries I have ever visited, situated in a repurposed nun convent in the Fishtown neighborhood of northeast central Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is owned and operated by Jeremy Hush (jeremyhush), an incredibly talented artist and carpenter himself. Over the years, I have visited The Convent a number of times to see Cadabra Records live performances and to see the artwork of artists that Jeremy admires. On November 29th, artists Martin McCoy (martin.mccoy.art) and Ellie (Jo) Livingston (elliejoliv) had some of their fantasy artwork on display at the gallery. Beyond just having their art on display, they were both there in person to meet and talk with people about their work. Anyone who has followed Between the Bolter and Me for a while knows about our extreme fondness for Martin and his work, having commissioned him to create artwork for some of our own projects. My brothers and I have also been fans of Ellie’s work for awhile, from her work creating fantastic creatures for RPG sessions in Ekphrastic Beasts (which Jeremy Hush also contributed) and her more recent work illustrating amphibians and reptiles for the Magic: the Gathering set Bloomburrow. With Philadelphia just a 1.5-hour drive from my home, I cleared my calendar and drove to The Convent to see the artwork and talk with both Martin and Ellie.
I arrived at the Convent a little before the gallery opened and spent some time chatting with Martin and Ellie. I had a wonderful time talking with Ellie about her appreciation for small, realistically scaled weaponry in her artwork, something that she had received some flak for in the past (fantasy and sci-fi artwork abounds with ridiculously large weaponry). The theme of the gallery showing was the adventurous and fantastic worlds that Ellie and Martin have created through their art. Of the artwork that Ellie brought, some was featured in RPG settings like Dolmenwood (based around folklore and fairy tales from the British Isles), and some from the aforementioned Ekphrastic Beasts. The work that Martin brought was from an RPG setting he has been developing called Mossweave, which features bipedal animals in fantasy attire battling ancient forest spirits (think of a cross between Brian Jacques' novel series Redwall and the Studio Ghibli film Princess Mononoke). A lot of the artwork on display were pieces that I had seen online, but seeing them in person was a whole new experience, affording me the ability to see each stroke of the pencil, each line of ink, and each dab of paint. Please see some photographs I took of the showing below, and be aware that many of the pieces of artwork are currently on sale on The Convent’s website!
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| Bone Grinder by Ellie (Jo) Livingston. Ellie has a real knack for portraying the whimsical and cunning nature of goblins! |
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| The walls of The Convent were teeming with evocative artwork. |
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| Rüu Cavalry by Ellie (Jo) Livingston. The Rüu are a group of sentient and intelligent frogs featured in Ekphrastic Beasts. They prefer to live in peaceful seclusion, but can be rallied to war whenever someone threatens the environment in which they dwell. I was particularly excited about this piece because the Rüu is mounted on a Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), a species of very large aquatic salamander only found in the mountain streams of Eastern North America. Currently, habitat loss is threatening them, so any representation is helpful to raise awareness about them. |
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| With Mossweave, Martin has created a rich world that feels lived in and nuanced. |
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| While most of the animals in Martin’s Mossweave setting are small mammals, he did one piece of artwork of an old and venerable turtle named Bjorn Scaletoe, which was my personal favorite. |
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| Martin and Ellie are both incredible artists and delightful people! |
I feel incredibly fortunate to have spent some time with Martin and Ellie and really take in the majesty of their artwork. Beyond being incredible artists, they are also lovely people. Make sure to check out more of their work on their Instagram pages: Martin McCoy (martin.mccoy.art) and Ellie (Jo) Livingston (elliejoliv). Martin also has an Etsy page where you can buy prints of his artwork, which you can find here. Ellie has a BigCartel page where you can buy prints, stickers, and Magic Playmats, which you can find here. I am also thankful for Jeremy Hush (jeremyhush) and The Convent for providing such a great place to experience artwork. Follow The Convent’s Instagram account (theconventphilly) for news of future events. And check out the artwork they have on sale, which you can find here.
- Gregory Wier
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