Darrell K. Sweet

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nimrodd
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Darrell K. Sweet

Post by nimrodd »

I got some sad news tonight, that artist Darrell K. Sweet had passed away today.

Back in the 80's when I started reading SF and Fantasy, one of the two artists that would draw me in to look at a book was Darrell K. Sweet. It was his attention to detail, the colors he used on the cover (even if some authors thought it inaccurate) and a certain style that would grab me and make me want to read the book.

I first got to meet Darrell and his wife Janet, in 2004 at Conestoga 8, in Tulsa, OK. He was great to sit and talk with, and I even got to go to lunch with him, his wife and another fan. I got to meet him again in 2005 at DragonCon.

That same year, I began running the art show for FenCon, a new convention in Dallas, Texas. One of the two artists that I wanted to get as a guest, was Darrell. In 2006, I had the pleasure of having him be the Artist Guest of Honor for my second convention as art show runner. After the convention was over, me and my then girlfriend (now wife) had the pleasure of showing Darrell and his wife around Fort Worth before taking them to the airport to fly back to Wyoming.

I didn't get to see him again until this year in June at SoonerCon in Oklahoma City. He was looking frail after having had pancreatic cancer a couple of years before. Also in the 5 years since I had seen them, his wife had passed away, as well. I got to visit with him for most of the weekend, and my wife and I went to dinner with him and another couple that we know.

During this convention, he was approached by the Texas Worldcon bid committee to be the Artist Guest of Honor in 2013, should Texas win the bid (which we did in August). As we were talking that weekend, he said that he was looking forward to coming to Texas for the WorldCon.

About a month after SoonerCon, I was approached by the Worldcon committee to be the guest liaison to Darrell K. Sweet, which I readily accepted and was looking forward to doing. Unfortunately, that was not to be.

I am glad to have known Darrell, and wish that I could have known him better. He was in the middle of painting the cover of the final Wheel of Time book when he passed away. As someone in another post said of this, "Sad, but kind of oddly appropriate that both the book and the cover should be finished by someone other than the one who started them...".
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Tyrel Lohr
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Re: Darrell K. Sweet

Post by Tyrel Lohr »

That's an incredible shame. It's always sad to hear about one of the old hands in the SF/Fantasy field passing away, be it an author or an artist. That last Wheel of Time book is determined to take as many people with it as it can!

From looking over at his website, I see that Darrell actually lived up in Cody, Wyoming. That would help to explain the presence and inspiration for the western art in his online portfolio. Cody is home to quite a few artists and art galleries, and being that close to Yellowstone you have quite a bit of good country to go out and paint if the muse hit.
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nimrodd
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Re: Darrell K. Sweet

Post by nimrodd »

Tyrel Lohr wrote:From looking over at his website, I see that Darrell actually lived up in Cody, Wyoming. That would help to explain the presence and inspiration for the western art in his online portfolio. Cody is home to quite a few artists and art galleries, and being that close to Yellowstone you have quite a bit of good country to go out and paint if the muse hit.
Actually, he was doing western art when he was still living in New Jersey.
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Re: Darrell K. Sweet

Post by Tyrel Lohr »

nimrodd wrote:Actually, he was doing western art when he was still living in New Jersey.
Then I guess he was just migrating towards the subject matter :)
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Re: Darrell K. Sweet

Post by Tyrel Lohr »

I was looking for his obituary on the Casper Star Tribune website (our state newspaper, essentially) and found this article about him from 2007:

http://trib.com/features/range/article_ ... 23153.html
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