Our interview with artist guest of honor Gary Villarreal was delayed by a series of missed connections, and then lost when a MacBook didn’t survive a six-foot drop. He remained patient through it all, and the takeaway is that the BayCon programming staff made an amazing choice in inviting the guy.
Maybe Villarreal’s small-town (Bryan, TX [pop. 85000] is 150 miles from San Antonio) upbringing had something to do with it. His job at a supermarket meat counter ("it was actually a lot of fun", he said) led to a design gig with the market.
Three years after graduating from Texas A&M, he ventured to southern California to pursue his art career. "After growing up in the country, it was definitely a culture shock, but I treat people the way I want to be treated", Villarreal said. "Humility and an ability to get along with people helped get me here".
Villarreal’s day job is concept art for Super Bit Machine, which develops real-time multiplayer games. Otherwise, he cultivates his freelance experience, "always creating characters".
Villarreal’s BayCon schedule taps into his creativity, while involving him with attendees. "I look forward to meeting new people, and the live drawing will be fun", he said.
"There are many things I want to discuss about the journey I’m in, so [the Art from the Heart panel] will be like a heart-to-heart conversation. I hope people get motivated here to pursue their dreams and slaying their personal demons." During the Delphic Oracle session, panelists will team up to answer questions one word at a time. "I’m looking forward to the randomness of this panel because that’s where people get the genuine creativity of the panelist", Villarreal said.
A fan of classic horror like "Alien" and "John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’", and retro video games like Metal Warriors and Mario Kart, Villarreal might say at The Medium at Large panel that he’s a simple man who travels with no more than a mechanical pencil and sketchbook.