Marrakech 2013: Thanks to a generous patron, a happy respite in Morocco with my sister after a summer of civil unrest in Istanbul. We stayed at his riad in the souk & I never stopped drawing. And now we have these pictures! #morocco #portrait #marketplace #drawing

Fabulous faces caught on the fly in Istanbul. All drawn from life: on the tram, out in front of the harbor, at cafes & in the street & in a concert at Hagia Irene, making these memories indelible. #portrait #drawing #penandink #istanbul #faces

Theo Cat was found after almost 2 months of cold, rain & snow. Someone saw my poster & saw him& called me. He was thin & scratched & dirty but is now sleek, plump & happily purring at home once more.

BaiKERS IN EPHESUS: Love the surreal contrasts found wandering around in St John’s Basilica & Ephesus. The bikers (“Ride with Pride”) told me they were from Iran. Grabbed a photo & when I looked up they were gone. #portrait #drawing #ephesus #stjohns

Film Fiends from 100 years of movie horror: Bela Lugosi, Lon Cheney, Boris Karloff, Tor Johnson, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Fay Wray, Barbara Steele, Frederick March & Norman Bates’s Mother all wish you a ghoulish Halloween! #halloween #scare #vintagefilm #horrorfilm #digitalart

Y’know, I don’t think I’ll bother posting on Blue Sky anymore. Nobody here seems to be looking at my posts, & hardly any likes. I get a nice feedback on my 4 other platforms. So have fun, kids, talking to each other!

…in every brick & stone, drawn in 2011 before the present restoration. #architecture #byzantine #drawing

Visible History: the 9thCentury Byzantine Boukoleon Palace was burnt by Crusaders in 1204, lived in by families for centuries, dynamited by the British & the Sultan in 1888 for the Orient Express Railway, further demolished in 1963 to build the Shore Road (Kennedy Caddesi). Every bit of that shows…

The Ottoman Coke Kiosk, 2014. This fabulous chunk of Ottoman splendor, probably 18thC Tulip Period, started life as a water reservoir in Eminonu before being moved to Zeynep Sultan Camii (1769) in Sultanahmet. Took me 2 weeks to draw these echoes in marble. #architecture #istanbul

Istanbul’s old wooden houses, survivors from a time of Ottoman splendor. Some are beautifully restored, others fit only for destruction. Once in the Old City, one collapsed in a storm. By nightfall it had vanished- into the neighborhood stoves. #architecture #istanbul #drawing

Hagia Sophia: Look Closer. 1500 years of history in the details: forgotten arches & other architectural artifacts, magnificent doors, thresholds shaped by time, Crusader graffiti, the cracked floor now covered with carpet, & the late Gül Kedi, 16 years Queen Cat in the great basilica. #hagiasophia

I love these battered old hunks; there are plenty in better shape but I’m not compelled to draw them

My boyfriends all live in museums… every fabulous face & body there, radiating masculine beauty & power, was posed by an actual ancient hottie. Most back then didn’t live so long, but now they live forever. #archeology #men #art #museums #ancient

Birth from her hand is an aspect of Kali. The nude female figure, a self-portrait, leaping from the palm of her hand is deleted here to comply with social media rules, but rest assured she got born.

KALI FOURSQUARE 1990: In those days I kept vampire hours, creating most of this stuff between midnight & 4AM. All images inspired in part by power goddesses from ancient Japan, India, Mexico, China, & Crete. Created online by hand w/digital tools on a Mac in 1990. cTriciVenola.

Faces that matter, from my last year in LA. Many of these friends are gone now so I cherish their pictures all the more. #portrait #drawing #friends

KAŞ BEFORE: Slow life in Kaş before they built the yacht harbor. Some of it is still there. Drawn in summer 2000.

Softalk was an Apple publication, although not part of Apple, the first computer magazine in English- rather than techno-jargon) with pictures. It quickly grew & by 1984 had 80+ employees & 4 magazines, including the first Macintosh mag: St Mac.

What on earth could have appeared on Cats of Yore to torch off a rant? It’s such a gentle channel!

Here’s to Uncle Don Robertson, manager at Softalk Publications (the first readable computer magazines) in the 1980s. Nobody knew what he did, but if he wasn’t there, nothing worked. Built in Comic Strip Factory.1, 1990.

Oh the hours & days I’ve spent down in this Byzantine ruin under what’s now Palatium Cafe in Sultanahmet, once part of The Corridor of Lord, a ceremonial passage where the Empress walked in grand procession on the night of her marriage. CGI renderings of the Corridor c Byzantium1200.

FACES IN BEYOGLU: All drawn during a time of personal displacement & terror in summer 2007. Drawing these kept me grounded & they remain the best thing from that time. #portrait #istanbul

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art: a treasury of images in surreal juxtaposition. These were all drawn over two days there in a long-ago summer. Most of these are holy images of gods past & present. #holy #museum #drawing #nymet

Yes, that’s the rock god you think it is; his concert was cancelled due to a national tragedy & he stayed to see the sights. And you should have seen his 9-person entourage lined up across the street staring at this thing, stunned, saying, “This is so cool.”

THE BYZANTINE CAR WASH as I drew it in 2014. It likely started in the 13thC as a Genoese chapel. Distracted by an exotic visitor, I was compelled to draw his portrait before finishing. Kudos to the excellent street artists & let’s thank all the gods this magnificence is preserved as a cafe.

Pergamon gave us Law & Medicine as well as much else long before Alexander the Great was there. The Red Church was preserved by the Turkish town of Begama, at the foot of the ancient city.

THE RED CHURCH in Bergama, Turkey, started life in the 2nd CE as an Egyptian temple before becoming a Christian basilica. The lady leaned on our doorway in Bergama’s old Greektown with as much presence as the goddess Sekmet. On the mountain above them is the ancient city of Pergamon.

After opening BlueSky every morning since its inception I am now required to sign in & had to come up with a new password. Almost didn’t bother. What’s up with you guys?

LITTLE EGYPT: just enjoyed a long exhibit in the Digital Witness show at Los Angeles County Art Museum. Created for fun in 8 colors in 1988 in MacDraw II, assembled in Studio 8, loved by all, it was passed on by a former Apple CEO as a campaign for the Mac as ‘Too much fun.’

Steamy hot summer in Side 2000. I’d never seen any of this before. I never stopped drawing. Everyone should have such a summer & live to tell the tale. Roman ruins, tide pools, wonderful faces, bad romance.