





For this Star Wars Celebration, coming April 16-19 to the Anaheim Convention Center, the competition to be a part of the Celebration Art Show was fierce. Talented Star Wars artists — many more than for any previous Celebration — sent in original concepts for consideration. In order to be in competition for the show, the artists must have already created Star Wars work for Lucasfilm or for a Lucasfilm licensee. Each was well-established in the Star Wars art world, but to keep the Art Show at Celebration within reasonable numbers, we had to select a much smaller number than applied.

To answer the challenge of selecting a limited number of artists from a large, capable field, Lucasfilm’s Celebration team brought together an A-list of Lucasfilm talent to do the judging.

From Industrial Light & Magic Art Department:

John Bell — Sr. VFX Art Director

Alex Jeager — Sr. VFX Art Director

Christian Alzmann — r. VFX Art Director

Aaron McBride — Sr. VFX Art Director

David Nakabayashi — Creative Director

From Lucasfilm Animation:

Kilian Plunkett — Art Director

Amy Beth Christianson — Sr. Concept Artist

From Disney Consumer Products:

Troy Alders — Art Director

From Disney Interactive:

Hez Chorba — Creative Director

Shereen Von Trapp — Graphic Designer

We rounded out the list of judges with experts in Star Wars characters and continuity, like Pablo Hidalgo, Leland Chee, Pete Vilmur, and Brian Merten. Concepts were identified by number, so our judges made their selections based on the concepts alone, without knowing the names of the artists.

Congratulations to These Celebration Art Show Artists!

Steve Anderson

Drew Baker

Lin Zy Busch

Matt Busch

Jeff Carlisle

Jason Christman

Jeff Confer

Katie Cook

Joe Corroney

Doug Cowan

Mark Daniels

Chris Dee

Terry Dodson

Grant Gould

Karen Hallion

Scott Harben

Stephen Hayford

Jessica Hickman

Adam Hughes

Brandon Kenney

Brian Kesinger

Lee Kohse

Ken Lashley

Erik Maell

Randy Martinez

Brian Miller

Jake Murray

William O’Neill

Jason Palmer

Brian Rood

Alex Ross

Tsuneo Sanda

Cat Staggs

Shea Standefer

Chris Trevas

Malcom Tween

Jerry Vanderstelt

Russell Walks

Marc Wolfe

Brent Woodside

Look for these artists, and for their work created exclusively for Star Wars Celebration, in the Art Show presented by ACME Archives, and in their own booths on the Celebration Experience Show Floor. First looks of their artwork for the show will be posted on StarWars.com and www.starwarscelebration.com starting in February.

In more art-related news, we are very proud to introduce the Star Wars Celebration Anaheim key art by artist Craig Drake.

Originally from Detroit, Craig moved to San Francisco in 1998 to work as an animation and freelance designer, later moving on to Electronic Arts. He started working for Lucasfilm in 2006 where he created his first limited-edition Princess Leia print. Since then, he has participated in numerous poster art shows with Mondo, Hero Complex Gallery, Gauntlet Gallery, and LTD Gallery. He continues to produce illustrations for Lucasfilm.

Finally, our new Celebration sizzle is live! I love it – get ready to tweet @SW_Celebration!

Learn more about Star Wars Celebration at www.starwarscelebration.com!