Always feminine, often erotic, and usually tinged with irony — fantasy artist Rowena takes modern dilemmas and presents them in a fanciful and powerful fairytale world. Above all, she paints extraordinary images of women. More than 100 artworks and insightful commentary show the influences behind this artist who has done covers for Anne McCaffrey, Issac Asimov, Piers Anthony, Madeleine L’Engle, Samuel R. Delaney, and even National Lampoon.

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660), commonly referred to as Diego Velázquez, was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary baroque period, important as a portrait artist. He lived in Italy for a year and a half from 1629 to 1631 with the purpose of traveling and studying works of art. In 1649 he traveled to Italy again. In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and cultural significance, he created scores of portraits of the Spanish royal family, other notable European figures, and commoners, culminating in the production of his masterpiece, Las Meninas (1656).