MTG: Dance of the Dead (1994)
My, "Freebird."
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Using some old music references, there are a few bands with notable first minor or major hits. The Police (”Roxanne”), The Cure (”Boys Don’t Cry”), Depeche Mode (”Just Can’t Get Enough”), Radiohead (”Creep”) and so on. These songs have in common that they were from first albums*, did pretty well, enabled the bands to continue on, and were all a bit...naive, simple, not actually great music, but catchy. And all the bands mentioned went on to have lengthy careers where they developed into much more formed musicians.
1994’s, “Dance of the Dead,” released in ‘95’s Ice Age expansion of Magic: the Gathering, is my equivalent. Whil e technically I’d had an EP release prior (Wizards’ Vampire TCG), to continue the analogy, my first Magic set was my, “Major label debut.” And like the music mentioned above, this too shares those same qualities. And like them, despite those early-era faults, it seems to have held up, remaining very popular, and has a special place in my heart.
Painted quite small as most card game art was back then, at only 7x8” in acrylic, I worked on it in the late fall of 1994, shortly after turning 20. It feels like it! It carries a catalog # of, “XIV,” since I number paintings using roman numerals because I have to do something artistically pretentious now and again despite working in the no-respect end of the illustration world most of the time. I began numbering pieces in this way earlier that year, and still do to this day for illustration and other personal works, hundreds of art pieces later. I number my Hearts for Hardware, Still Life paintings and all-digital art by separate schemes.
Dance of the Dead was my favorite of my contributions to that set at the time, and I was thrilled to see public appreciation of it when it released. I held onto it longer than most early era Magic paintings, and sold it for a tidy sum when I parted with it in 2000 or 2001. A tidy sum at the time, compared to the going rate of most Magic originals then! So I was thrilled to see it come up on the secondary market not long ago, and to watch it set a new record for a painting of mine. I never discuss numbers, but being a public sale I wasn’t remunerated for, I’ve got no problem doing so here. It’s not because the art is so awesome of course: it was used in a tremendously popular product, was an early and therefore scarce painting from those early years, was never reprinted which means it never had its art replaced and improved on. All these contribute of course, with Magic having a very unique collector base and market overall compared to the art world at large.
And for the record, I have zero issue seeing art get resold later for a whole lot more. I’m glad for it. My first goal is for the art to be enjoyed as long as possible in the home of a collector--I want the purchase price to be fulfilled in the enjoyment of the work. But if it needs to be parted with later, hopefully much later, I am glad if they also are able to see a return on it.
The person who bought it owned it the whole time, and was always super nice when we communicated. I love when paintings have long tenures in people’s homes. I also heard some nice stories from a relative of theirs about it, as the owner passed away a few years ago. Since I’m not super social, it’s an important aspect of my work for art to reside in others’ homes. It’s one of the greatest compliments that can be given to me, and the artwork represents an actual portion of my life, a record of my activities, a time capsule of the time spent on it.
I’m rarely aware of my age, and rarely pause to stop and feel a moment of accomplishment in anything I do. Watching this piece go up and change hands provided me the opportunity to do both!
*Yes, I’m aware that, “Boys Don’t Cry” was not on the Cure’s initial UK album, only on their first USA release which we got instead.
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