Laura flew from the nest in central Kansas to college to study architectural design at Kansas State in 2005.  A 2009 jump over the pond brought her to study Renaissance ideals in a tiny medieval town perched above the beautiful valleys of Tuscany, Italy.  There she met a dear and wise local artist named Gabriele Menci.  In weekly watercolor classes with him, a love of painting poppies, chickens, and the wondrous cypress tree developed and Laura caught the art bug.

Back in Kansas, she wades through various pursuits including architecture, cooking, gardening, acrylic and watercolor painting, textiles, furniture, photography, jewelry, and paper crafts -delighting in colors, flavors, and textures of the world!

For more images of her work, view her websites:

1. www.bleuherron.etsy.com

2. www.facebook.com/bleuherron

3. www.wordpress.com/bleuherron

By day Gavin works as an architect at el dorado inc.  By night, he plays music and draws for South Sea Island Magic, a band that doubles as a visual art project.  Right now he is also illustrating a comic for each of the songs on their debut album, with pages updated weekly at:  http://southseaislandmagic.com/

Besides creating artwork for the band, Gavin also illustrates posters, albums, T-shirts, and logos for a number of other local bands and organizations. You can see some of them here:  http://southseaislandmagic.com/?page_id=487

All of Gavin’s illustration projects are updates sporadically and compiled chronologically on his blog:  http://revolutiongetsindustrial.blogspot.com/

This will be Gavin’s third Monster Drawing Rally!

Yvette Gray graduated from the Universityof Wisconsinat Madison with a BS in Interior Design. She spent seven years in the field of Commercial Interior Design, Architecture and specialty Lighting Design.  In 2004 Yvette started her new carrer as a stay at home Mom.  She quickly realized that she still needed Art and Design in her life in order to keep herself balanced as a wife and mother.  Yvette now spends her free time painting, drawing, knitting, sewing, woodworking and cooking…….any creative project for her home or kids that she can get her hands on!  While she has been commissioned for a few custom murals and Interior Design jobs, most of Yvette’s work has been created for charity works.  This includes custom painted backdrops for the Sugarplum Fairy Luncheon at the Kansas City Ballet, a design for the Youth Room at VineyardChurch, Vacation Bible school sets, Stage Design for special events at Vineyard Church, and many custom designed childrens’ rooms for friends and family.  In the future, Yvette plans to launch her own full scale Interior Design business specializing in highly themed environments and custom painting.  You can see some of her work at Grayscale Spaces on Facebook or her emerging blog at www.grayscalespaces.blogspot.com

We will be featuring some of our participating artists leading up to the event.  First up…

Sandra Van Tuyl 

A professional artist for the past 17 years, and a Kansas City native, she uses structures and deserted urban spaces to create emotional language.  These dream like paintings have been accepted to regional exhibitions throughout the mid-west; from the Williams Wood University in Fulton, Missouri to the Salina Art Center and the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins, Colorado.  Her paintings and drawings have also been in individual and group shows, including the Late Show, Leedy-Voulkos, and the Kansas City Artist Coalition, as well as many corporate headquarters.  Her work has been purchased corporations like Sprint as well as individuals from Palm Springs, CA to Chicago, IL.  Sandra has also had public art installed in Blue Springs and Jefferson City, Missouri in 2008.  She received an ArtKC Fund Inspiration Grant for this installation.

Here are some images of her work…

Please visit www.sandravantuyl.com for more!