Cash Chapman — Artist On The Rise

Self Portrait -- Cash Chapman

This is a shameless plug for the artist who has done both covers for my latest books. He is a bright, young 21-year-old getting his art degree from the prestigious Ringling College of Art and Design in Florida and has, in my opinion, a heckuva career ahead of him.

I met Cash at a Thanksgiving party some three years back. He is the nephew of one of my best friends, and we talked art and artists for quite some time. I had seen his work and had been quite impressed. So I asked him if he was interested in doing the cover art for my recently finished octopus adventure novel Eight Arms To Hold Me.

Not sure what happened, but that fizzled out.

So I worked with an online artist who manipulated a lot of clip art. I was dissatisfied with his work. A well-known local hippie artist came up with a beautiful octopus in space, but it too wasn’t quite what I was looking for.

At the urging of his uncle, Cash circled back to me a couple of years later with some rough pencil sketches. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I had not known what exactly I was looking for, but when I saw Cash’s sketches they spoke to me.

We volleyed back and forth via email, text, and phone calls. Cash has a fluid mind and when presented with an idea like a ray gun or how an octopus would array its tentacles to cling to a human, he would come up with several ideas and designs. All this while carrying a full class load. Impressive.

I liked his work so much on my octopus adventure novel that I contracted with him for the cover of my next book Death In Springtime, a noir detective story set in a wind-up world with no electricity, one entirely powered by gears and springs.

Cash Chapman’s art will be in the Art Show at the 84th World Science Fiction Convention a the Anaheim Convention Center, August 27th through 31st. The artist himself will be at the convention as well. You might run into him at the Planet Mertz table in the Dealers Room. At Planet Mertz you can also buy Joshua Mertz’s books, ranging from dystopian cyberpunk through thrilling adventure to imaginative noir mystery. Drop by Planet Mertz and say hello!