West Wins (and Declines) Rotsler Award

Fan artist D. West won the 2011 Rotsler Award for Fan Artist, sponsored by the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests and presented at Loscon 38, November 25-27, 2011 in Los Angeles. The award includes a $300 prize.

West wrote a letter refusing the award, which reads, in part,

Rotsler may not have meant any harm (and may even be said to have acted on generous impulses) but in the end he did do harm, effectively by a kind of artistic dumbing-down… an award for fan art with Rotsler’s name attached may also not mean any harm (and may even be said to be based on generous impulses) but I don’t feel I can have anything to do with it. To reconcile acceptance of this award with my opinions on Rotsler’s work and the effects it has had on fan art would require a feat of mental and moral gymnastics beyond even my capabilities. Thank you anyway for the compliment of choosing me, but you will have to find a recipient elsewhere.

West has won three FAAn Awards for Best Artist and was nominated for a Best Fan Artist Hugo Award in 1999.

For more, see this post at File 770.