I am late in saying "congrats" to all the Hugo nominees, but a sincere congrats to ya'll, even if tardy.
Since this is the art department, a special nod to Bob Eggleton, Phil Foglio, John Harris, Stephan Martiniere, John Picacio, and Shaun Tan.
For those following the change in Hugo procedure, Donato Giancola, John Picacio, and I proposed and debated the merits of citing specific artwork done within the year as means of making the voters more aware of the work than the artists' reputations. Donato declined a nomination this year in an attempt to hep expand the pool of artists being recognized for their contributions to the field. And you have to figure a nominee list that includes a children's book writer/illustrator, cartoonist, established greats, and younger guns is a pretty good list. (Last year, I had a clear favorite in mind. This year...it's tough.)
I noticed that publishers are starting to mention the artists n their Hugo press releases -- a happy, if unintended, consequence. Normally they do not mention the artists, since there is no direct connection between them and the books they have worked on, but with no prompting from me, Tor's publicity department included John Harris and Stephan Martiniere for the Tor books cited on the ballots. I believe Pyr has done the same.
The conversation is expanding.