elrhiarhodan

I'm doing this one a bit out of order. I'll post Day 12, 14 and 15 tomorrow.

Day 13 – In your own space, talk about a creator. Show us why you think they are amazing.

I have many wonderful friends who are awesome creators and if I had the time, I'd devote hours to talking about their excellence, their unmatched creativity, their spirit of community and friendship, but since my time is finite, I'd like to talk about the insanely talented, extremely generous, and awesometastically awesome

kanarek13.

My first contact with Kanarek was through another fanwork creator,

rabidchild, when Kanarek spontaneously created cover art for her WC/Nu!Trek crossover story (the one where Spock goes back in time, falls in love with Neal, Neal dies of a mysterious disease, but Mozzie has cryogenically preserved and Neal ends up in the 25th century, aboard the Enterprise).

I was SOOOOO jealous. No one had ever done art for me just because, but that painful, shameful emotion was short-lived, because Kanarek volunteered to create art for my first White Collar Big Bang, Close Your Eyes and Think of Me (Call Out My Name), which didn't have an artist, because I'd withdrawn from the challenge and then re-joined after the art claims were made. (Long story, won't bore you here about that). And the art was INCREDIBLE. Heartbreakingly so.

There's much more at Kanarek's journal.

A few weeks after that, I get an email from Kanarek, completely out of the blue, asking me how I liked this, As cover art for Something We Never Dreamt We Could Have:

Now, I'd just mentioned the story to Kanarek in an email about something else, or maybe it was in a post about Works in Progress. But just the fact that she created something for me without me having to ask for it, just made my heart sing. And it still does.

The gifts have kept coming over the years.

For my Winged!Neal 'verse:

For the 2013

wcpairings fic Fortune's Just a One Night Stand

There is still so much more to include.

Kanarek's art for my 2013 White Collar Big Bang, Red Velvet:

.

The rest of the incredible art can be seen here, at her journal.

She also gifted me with covers for the first two Unusual Relations fics for my 2013 Fandom Stocking:

There have been other gifts, art for the cover of The Paladin 'Verse

And my Fandom Stocking gift for this past year:

Just because I'd once mentioned I had an idea about a Roman/Celtic A/U. Just mentioned ONCE!

But there are three sets of artwork I have to give very special mention to.

First: Last summer, when I was caught in a bit of a slump, I started writing short ficlets based on prompts from The Writer's Book of Days, stories which eventually became The Other Side of Heaven, my entry for this past Caffrey-Burke Day. I shared the first story with her, which was based on a Tim as Jonesy from Carnivale with Wings (which Kanarek had created at my politely begging request), and the third story, which was based on Winged Neal walking along a desert highway from his Details shoot (combined into this cover):

But as magnificent as these two pieces are, they don't come close to the image she created for the prompt "My Last, Best Memory".

Second is the wealth of artwork Kanarek created for my 2014 White Collar Big Bang, Let Your Honesty Shine

There are so many incredible works of art illustrating this story that I can't repost all of them here. I encourage you to look at them at Kanarek's journal entry.

But there is one piece that I have to call out for special attention:

I had dreamed of an image where Felix is holding his child, but never EVER imagined that it would come to life so wonderfully, so vividly, so perfectly. It still makes me weep.

And the last set of artwork I need to call out is the art that Kanarek created for me that I need to call special attention to is the illustrations she did for the first White Collar Reverse Big Bang, If The Soul Doesn't Sing (Just One Life)

All I would do is mention a scene and BANG! a new illustration arrived. When I told her that the story was finished and sent her the final chapter, a few hours later, I received this:

I literally screamed as the image loaded. And even now, it still takes my breath away.

I know there's artwork she's created for me that I haven't included here: covers for more Wonder(ful) Years stories, a cover and a yet-to-be published end piece for Return and Rebuild the Desolate Places, the cover for one of my Poly Big Bang entries and more that I'm probably forgetting. It's an embarrassment of riches that I don't think I really deserve.

Now, you might think that Kanarek13 just creates art for me, given the volume of work I've shared with you, but she doesn't. Kanarek illustrates so many White Collar fanworks, I often wonder if she ever sleeps. She's created multiple artworks for each round of the Reverse Big Bangs, plus the standard White Collar Big Bang. She did art for many of the last round of White Collar Pairings stories. And last year, in a tour de force, Kanarek did a bingo just of White Collar artwork for H/C Bingo.

She is talented and generous and wonderful. I am proud that she's a member of the White Collar fandom and more important, I am proud to call her my friend.