Life is a Great Big Canvas

There have been many theories as to the identity of Mona Lisa, the portrait painted by Leonardo Davinci. Some think it is a feminized self portrait. Some say it's DaVinci's lover. I found an article in The Artist's Magazine that makes a very good case for the identity of LaGioconda. The article is called Who's That Girl? written by Katherine Mesch, in the June 2005 issue of the magazine. I read this many years ago and thought it was very interesting. I recently rediscovered the article and thought I would share it. In this article, the author explains that "after 17 years of research, historian Maike Vogt-Luerssen ...claims that the Mona Lisa is really Isabella of Aragon, the former duchess of Milan." The paintings themselves give clues, as well as documents from that period in history, She goes on to explain: "The woman is wearing heavy mournful garments (Isabella's mother died a year prior to the painting of the portrait--she would have still ...

The Caves at Lascaux in southwestern France, are famous the world over for the paintings on their walls. These are some of the earliest paintings found, and are dated around 15,000-17,000 BC, and were discovered by a group of teenagers in 1940. Like the Chauvet Cave Paintings, the Caves at Lascaux were protected for thousands of years by a landslide which sealed off all access. The caves were open to the public in 1948.By 1955, some of the cave's art began to deteriorate due to all the visitors and the change in the cave's climate. Lichens and crystals and fungus appeared, which were not present before. As a result, the caves were closed in 1963, with access granted only to a few scientists. Still today, only a few scientists are permitted, and the scientific community is working to preserve and restore the paintings. In 1983, an exact replica of the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery, created under Monique Peytral, was opened a short distance from t...

These are the hands of my husband, Andy, done for Figure Drawing, Charcoal, 2009

This is Elizabeth's hand holding a Tootsie Pop. I did thisfor Figure Drawing. Charcoal, 2009