Workshops and updates oh my!

I’ve just posted the rescheduled date for the Children’s Picture Book workshop as well as the date for our next reiteration of our popular Publishing 101 class. Also on tap: a Valentine’s themed tarot salon on February 12, featuring readings from myself and renowned urban shaman Mama Donna Henes.

As some of you might recall, the Children’s Picture Book workshop was originally to take place in December. But life, alas, had other plans. Between that and the holidays, I found myself out of my studio for almost a month. Fortunately, over the past week I’ve been able to get back into the creative swim. I suppose it shouldn’t be any surprise, but I’m always amazed by how exhausting and time-consuming grief is.

Currently underway is an iPhone app for the Goddess Inspiration Oracle (the free lite version is currently available on iTunes), a newly-hatched novel, and my long-developing follow up book to DOOMED QUEENS. To further stoke my creative fires, I’m also planning a short trip to Montreal to take in the Waterhouse exhibit before it closes. There’s a painting in it which figures very closely in my new novel. So how can I resist?

The good news is that there are still spaces available for the Children’s Picture Book workshop. So if you couldn’t make the original date, well, what are you waiting for? I’m excited to share all about my experiences as a book illustrator, designer, and all around publishing maven — a subject which is near and dear to my heart.

Learn more about these events and others here.

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The above photo is of the full version of the Goddess Inspiration Oracle. Doesn’t it look pretty? It should be available by the end of the month. Can’t wait? You can download the free lite version here now.

• Filed under creativity, events, publishing, studio and gallery, tarot and oracles, the art world | No Comments

Last call: Fairy Tale exhibit

If you live in the NYC area, this is the last week to view our fairy tale exhibit at the gallery. It features the work of Lisa Hunt (The Fairy Tale Tarot), Carisa Swenson, Kristina Carroll, Leela Corman, among others (including myself!). The exhibit has received with a great deal of positive attention.

Gallery hours are Friday, January 15, 5 to 8pm; Saturday, January 16, 1 to 5pm. And, as always, appointments are available at 347-406-5811. We’re located at 1501 Newkirk Avenue, Brooklyn, NY; entrance is on Marlborough Road a half a block from the Newkirk Avenue Q and B subway station. Street parking is available.

Children are decidedly welcome to this exhibit. More here.

On a related note, I’ve yet to post our upcoming events for January and February, including the date for our rescheduled children’s book workshop. They’ll be going up later this week. We’re till getting on schedule after being away for so long in December.

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The above photo was taken with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone, which is meant to produce a rather retro-looking photo. I have a gazillion “official” photos of the exhibit awaiting download — so far, all my attempts to download them have met with a lack of success. Mercury seems to be decidedly retrograde in these parts.

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Goddess Tarot app review

Thanks to Willa, who blogs at Beautiful iPhone Apps, for her lovely (and timely) review of the updated Goddess Tarot iPhone app:

“I have Kris Waldherr’s “Goddess Tarot” cards, so I was excited when she came out with an iPhone app. The original app was great, but one thing I would have liked to have was a journal to keep track of notes and thoughts on readings. With a recent update, a journal has been added, so the app is, in my opinion, pretty much perfect. And also beautiful!”

“Pretty much perfect” is high praise indeed.

Haven’t downloaded the app yet? You can here.

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The above illustration is of Isis, who is featured in The Goddess Tarot on the Magic (The Magician) card.

• Filed under goddesses, iPhone apps, reviews + press | 2 Responses

By popular demand…

…The Goddess Tarot and Love Tarot iPhone apps now include an integrated tarot journal!

This major update was just approved by Apple and is now available (or will be available shortly) on the iTunes App store. The journal feature allows users to record their favorite readings and inspirations. It also automatically saves a screenshot of any multi-card reading into an entry. Plus you can have unlimited entries, which can be revisted, edited, and deleted as desired.

If you’ve already purchased these apps, this is a free download. And if you haven’t purchased them, hopefully this will give you a good reason to do so!

Also underway here: the Goddess Inspiration Oracle iPhone app. It should be ready-to-go by the end of the month. I have the beta version here and am having a lot of fun playing with it.

• Filed under goddesses, iPhone apps, lover's path, tarot and oracles | No Comments

On life, love and loss

“I refuse to think of death. I decide that every day is going to be my best day ever. And it is.”

— Joyce Iris Miller (1930 – 2009)

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The abruptness of my last blog entry suggests that something sudden and unfortunate occurred here in Art and Words land. And it had. My mother-in-law, Joyce Miller, passed away on the evening of December 9th at the age of 79. Since then, we’ve been thrown into a land of bereavement and its aftermath, both emotional and practical.

It’s amazing how much time and energy loss takes. I’m certainly old enough to know loss in my life. But this one has really cut to the bone. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so hard if Joyce’s death had been expected. But it wasn’t — she had a sudden heart attack and died instantly. Otherwise, she was a vital force until the end, full of good humor and joy (as her name suggests). Besides a husband of 56 years, she left behind a daughter and a son — my husband — and two granddaughters.

How can I describe her without sounding like a hagiography? But all this is true — she was simply an extraordinarily generous person who saw the beauty and good wherever she went.

She gave her time and talents to numerous non-profits organizations, including the Library of Congress and the Women’s Democratic Club. She was someone who gathered friends everywhere she went and kept them. Joyce was also the best grandmother to my daughter Thea. Filled with patience and playfulness, she always had some special surprise to greet Thea with every time we visited her in Washington, DC, where she lived. She was always ready to tell a story or to give a hug.

Joyce also loved to have fun and enjoyed beautiful environments. Before her death, we had talked about taking a trip to Monticello and Newport to view the mansions of the rich and famous. She also enjoyed a good gossip and a dry vodka martini, preferably on the rocks with olives. One of my favorite Joyce quotes: “I gave up guilt. It wasn’t that hard to do.”

Joyce Miller was one of my favorite people in this world, and possibly the kindest person I’ve ever met. Last week, we laid her to rest in a grave we covered in peach-colored roses, not far from where John Philip Sousa was buried.

I miss her greatly already. But I feel blessed to have known her.

Joyce Miller with Tom in Rome, sometime in the 1970s.

• Filed under art and words, mythic living, queens, the world around me | 9 Responses