Dawn McKechnie

2013 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Dawn McKechnie (“Kaijugal”) began attending conventions in the late 1980’s while still a teenager, and began participating in masquerades in the early 1990’s. Her talent for making amazing works with the most unlikely of materials has led many of her friends to call her “MacGyver.” She is brilliant at constructing wild and wonderful creatures, and has won numerous awards for her work.

In the last 10 years Dawn has become more and more involved in organizing and running events. She has run dozens of masquerades, and is currently running the second-largest masquerade in Canada, FanExpo, as well as the entire costuming department at Canada’s largest fan-run convention, Anime North, She is currently President of the ICG Fibre Fantasy Artists of Canada, and is also co-chairing CC32.

Dawn’s other contribution has been her unflagging devotion to the Costuming Community. She is a primary source of the disseminating ICG philosophies and practices into the Anime and Cosplay communities. She actively mentors up-and-coming costumers, encouraging and supporting them as they begin taking the philosophies of the ICG and running events of their own.

(View the 2013 LAA group portrait.)