My friend (and Catherine of Aragon model) Diane Saarinen recently wrote a nice post on her tarot blog about her experience modeling for Doomed Queens. Diane is a fellow Brooklynite as well as a woman of many talents: tarot reader, editor, writer, photographer, and more.

Diane’s post touches on the symbolism of the crown — interesting, since I used a winged crown quite a bit in my Lover’s Path Tarot. She also reveals the reference photo which inspired her queen portrait. You can see the rather ragtag headdress I constructed for her from cardboard and foam core. It’s an interesting bit of before-and-after.

So go take a peek!

Though I know I mentioned this some time ago, but it’s still strange. I’ve been primarily identified on the web as ArtandWords.com for over a decade — and now it’s just little ol’ moi. To be honest, I feel a bit (for lack of a better term) exposed. But maybe these conflicted emotions signify that I’ve been hiding behind my old url in some strange way?

On the work front, I’m getting ready to take a small hiatus for a few days.My dear friend Lisa Hunt is coming to visit me this week! I’m very excited to have her as a houseguest. BTW, if you haven’t checked it out yet, Lisa’s new Fairy Tale Tarot journal is wonderful. I’m mentioned in a few of the posts too — I posed for her Goose Girl card. Go check me out in my costumed glory.

On a related note, Lisa posed for my Boudicca drawing for Doomed Queens. She brought much of her martial arts intensity to her task.* But that’s a subject for a separate post.

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*Did you know Lisa is about to test for her black belt? Amazing but true! I’m in awe of the woman.

1. I finished Doomed Queens.

2. Though I finished Doomed Queens, I’m still dealing with some last production-oriented details. So finished editorially, not finished design-wise.

3. Doomed Queens needs a website.

4. Yes, I’ve designed a teaser page, but it really needs a website.

5. My whole website needs to be redesigned. I know it’s a sad mess since I got hacked into several months ago and had to change ISPs.

6. Guess what I’ve been doing the past two weeks? Yes, I’m knee-deep in html and css and so on. I’m still not finished with the site, but getting close. Tentative launch date: August 7, 2008.

7. But there’s been good news for Doomed Queens.

8. Costco picked it up! “Attention, shoppers….”

9. There will be a point-of-purchase display for participating independent bookstores.

10. I want one for my gallery. I’m an independent bookstore. (Kind of. I do sell books in my studio-gallery.)

11. There will be an exhibition of Doomed Queens‘ art at my studio-gallery this winter.

12. The exhibition will be called “Royally Screwed: Doomed Queens through the Ages.” The opening will probably be Friday, October 29 — in time for Hallowe’en.

13. I’m going to create a window display for it at my studio-gallery. Maybe I’ll even include a faux guillotine to set the mood.

14. Actually, I’m thinking a lot about window display these days.

15. I want my gallery window to look like a Joseph Cornell box.

16. I wish I had more time to dive into it — maybe this autumn.

17. Also, on the gallery front: I’m planning to paint the area above my window cobalt blue with gold ornaments.

18. It will look like a medieval illumination. I hope.

19. I also plan to paint a large art deco-inspired tree on two walls. But in very subtle paint, almost like a paper watermark. (If walls can have watermarks.)

20. My friend Lisa Hunt just started a blog about her upcoming Fairy Tale Tarot. It’s very good!

21. She’s coming up north to visit me later this summer. I can’t wait!

22. Also on the social front: Two friends moved to my neighborhood, one into the apartment above my studio. My life feels like a sitcom.

23. I’m enjoying lots of café society this summer.

24. On the family front: Thea is potty trained. Hip, hip, hooray!

25. Tom is going away for three weeks to curate an exhibition in Germany. Yay for him, boo for us.

26. My father-in-law had a book published.

27. I designed the cover for it.

28. We all went away to Idaho for our vacation, right after my last blog post.

29. It was beautiful, but we lost electricity for three days after a giant tree fell in a windstorm.

30. Thea liked swimming in the lake. I liked reading lots of books.

31. We had a stop over in Colorado. They had lots of great book stores. We had to check an extra bag on our flight home.

32. Since our return to Brooklyn, I’ve been dealing with items # 1-19. I’ve also started opening up my gallery to the public Saturdays from 12 - 4.

And that’s the latest here! How was your July?

The entrance to Kris Waldherr Art and Words.

Art on display. Some of my children’s book paintings were hung at kid height, to be better appreciated by those under four feet tall.

The reading nook. Notice the artistic contribution by Thea.

More art on display. Many of the pieces are the small paintings from The Book of Goddesses and The Lover’s Path.

More work on display, including my Cupid and Psyche violin.

The kids really enjoyed looking at art. Here a few of them are discussing whether the pegasus is a cow or a horse or a bird. No consensus was reached.

Right now, I’m back to working on Doomed Queens. The end is in sight, which is a good thing — everything is due by July 7th (which is less than a month away. Yikes.).

Right now, I’m about halfway through the art for Doomed Queens — and I’ve just over six weeks to go until my final deadline. As an amuse bouche, here is my drawing of Catherine of Aragon, which was gamely posed for by my friend Diane Saarinen. Yes, I’m designing each drawing as sort of a royal danse macabre through queenly history.

Quick trivia question: Can you name the other wives of Henry VIII surrounding her? To jog your memory, here’s that old rhyme:

Divorced, beheaded, died;
Divorced, beheaded, survived.

Sounds bizarre, doesn’t it? I mean, what would someone “get” from impersonating a known illustrator on a board? The thrill of attention? Someone clearly has too much time on their hands — time which would be better spent doing something worthwhile.

While Lisa’s story may seem an isolated event, it’s not. This has happened before. I hope it won’t happen again, though.

Lisa has asked me to post this message on her behalf:

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“Recently, a moderator for an art forum advised me that the infamous “Stacy English” has been ripping off my name and artwork. This is not the first time someone has attempted to pose as myself. I’m trying to understand why anyone would want to steal my creative identity in this manner to begin with–what is there to be gained from it? Thankfully, members, with an astute eye for fraud, brought the impostor to the attention of the moderator and the individual was prevented from posting

“Unless an art group is listed on my links page and/or appears in a legitimate gallery with obvious copyright permission granted (and I am selective about where and how my art should appear on the web), assume it is an impostor. To everyone: I would greatly appreciate you helping me to stop this kind of unwelcome behavior by those who have seemingly nothing better to do than to pretend that they are me. Please e-mail me if you think someone is ripping my artwork off. Thank you for your kindness and support–and for other artists, beware of imposters! No one is immune from falling victim to art/identity theft. But by spreading the word and keeping informed, we can help prevent the proliferation of such perfidious behavior and protect our artistic integrity.”

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It’s sad that it’s necessary in this day and age that a hardworking artist such as Lisa has to remind people of the rights she is owed. I suspect that, with the abundance of riches on the web and in print, people assume that if something is posted or published it’s fair game to be used as they decide. One example: a music video producer informed me that since they had purchased my tarot cards they had purchased the right to reproduce them on television.

Not so. Just because artists choose to share their work with their world doesn’t mean that their right to control how it is reproduced comes to an end. It’s like saying that once your child goes out into the world, anyone can take charge and do as they see fit.

As for people like Stacey English, that’s a whole other story. From what I’ve heard, this is not the first time she has attempted to impersonate well known illustrators on the internet. The compassionate response would be to state that Stacey clearly has some identity issues that she needs to work out. Then, instead of putting her energies toward taking credit for others’ work, she could then work on making her own art for a change. Hopefully no one will steal it from her.