(Run your cursor over the image to see the detail. It may take a moment to load.)
This was done in 1989 as the cover for Wicca, a Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham. (It's gotten a new cover since then, of course.)
Llewellyn, who published the book, asked for this cover not to be in my "usual wifty style." I had no idea what they meant by that, so I discussed it with my wonderful art editor, Terry Buske, and we decided they didn't want the Faux Nouveau that I was doing for them at the time. They also wanted the practitioner to be androgynous, so that both men and women would be comfortable seeing themselves in the image.
So I asked a friend of mine to pose, and made her blond (so you could see her head against the dark background) and considerably less feminine than she really looked. Then I sent the picture in, Llewellyn had a meeting, and decided to ask Terry to tell me to put in something that was more like the Art Nouveau stuff that they liked so well. Go figure! So I added the smoke, and I made it wifty. <g>
We still have 1 of these available in the signed edition. If you want it, order it soon. When it's gone, I'm going to remove the buttons at the bottom of this page, and the signed prints will no longer be available.
I will be putting this up in my Zazzle store eventually, but those prints will be open edition.
The print has an image area roughly 7x9 inches and comes matted on a piece of foam-core board. Open edition, signed by the artist. $25 + $7 shipping and handling.
