Cay Denise

The February theme for Louise Fletcher's Art Tribe flip-book of art from members has just been issued!  I'm so excited because this is the big reveal for those of you who are not members of Art Tribe.  The month's theme was Re-imagining a Masterpiece in whatever medium of our choosing.  So here is my re-imagined self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh and my newest Sharpie painting!  Van Gogh's Self-Portrait Reimagined Vincent Van Gogh - his self-portrait (one of many) Van Gogh painted his self-portrait above in 1889.  What drew me in to want to use it as my source image was primarily the swirly background.  My interpretation is more an inversion of the calm/quiet colors in Van Gogh's work.  Mine is loud and busy yet maintains a dignified and sullen air to his image -- just as Van Gogh did of himself.    This was a such a great challenge idea...thank you Art Tribe! Materials for my Re-imagined Masterpiece:  Bristol Paper, Sharpie Markers, Micron Pen and white Posca pen.

The 'Grown-Ups Table' (or GUT as it is fondly called) is Wendy MacNaughton's brainchild on Substack.  As a practicing artist, she led her subscribers through January with daily themed art prompts that included great information about techniques, artists, and art genres among other topics.  It was a super experience and work too.  Part of participation involved reading others' posts and commenting on as many as you could.  With 700-1,000 posts per day, I'm sure some were missed, but I learned a ton from others.  I saw innovative interpretations of the prompts, learned about what people were intending with their work, and what memories they may have chosen to represent visually -- all sprinkled with some laughs along the way.  Thank you Wendy and the GUT community! Photos of some of my favorite work that I did (aside from the blind contour drawing posted in January) are below.  The materials I used throughout the month were colored pens and markers plus watercolor on

As part of Wendy MacNaughton's 30 Days of Drawing (in January), one day was a lesson on drawn journaling.  In it, she provided examples of authors/illustrators who have used this form in their books.  One of those books that caught my eye was 'Radioactive: Pierre and Marie Curie' by Lauren Redniss.  So, I ordered a copy. After receiving the book and reading through the first couple pages, I realized I needed to create a mind-map/flow-chart to keep track of the information.  This would be my way of summarizing the story in visual form.  With clipboard, cardstock and pens in place, I began reading the book and creating my visual notes -- and finished all in one sitting. As for the book, it is very well-written, interesting and informative, and the artful pages make it additionally engaging.  No wonder it was a finalist for the National Book Award!  As for me, I loved it!  Also, I really like my visual notes because they capture the main points/relationships/events, etc.  I wo