OK!! Name this artist!! This contemporary artist ...

a) was a female

b) was primarily a writer, though of more than one type of "format"

c) very greatly influenced a whole new body of artists of all mediums with her influential book outlining a means to release the inner artist ...

and (d) this very influential book actually evolved out of the process necessary for her own artistic recovery from alcoholism!

1)This person was a painter and graphic designer

2)This person was well-known for using live models and painting portraiture of pop culture icons of all types

3)Died the day after doing an exercise show with a popular exercise guru. Ironically, this person thought healthy food and exercise was stupid; for this person, it turned out to be.

Good luck! ~the coppery cat

Gosh, I'm stumped on this one.  I guess Andy Warhold, and my beloved hubby guessed Roy Lichtenstein, but the thing about the exercise show threw us both...I call "Uncle"...!

~sooz w

The exercise factoid is little-known, unless you were a fan of this artist. HE did a one-time eight-hour marathon aerobics show with Jack LaLanne, and submittedly his work regularly to Playboy for many years. His popularity was at its peak at his death in 1984.

Try again?

~copper cat

At first I thought Andy Warhol too, but...  Are you talking about Patrick Nagel???     ~L

You got it, Toyota! I mean, Lori!

Here's a link to a print of his in the gallery section of the official Patrick Nagel website:

http://www.patricknagel.com/html/gallery.html

You're up!!!

This one has me stumped as well....my first thought was Andy Warhol, as everyone else.  Then I went through the Pop Artists: Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Tom Wesselmann, and Robert Rauchenberg.  Then came the next list that included Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, Jim Rosenquist, and Jeff Koon.  Some of these artists are still living, not even near dying from exercising and dying the day after, copper cat!  I'm stuck....

 chameleon

Toyota?   OK...  This beloved artist is another one on my hero list.  Here are your clues:

• He grew up in Chicago and created his first cartoons for adult readers at Pacific Stars & Stripes when he was a GI in Japan and Korea in the 1950's.
• He was funny and sad and made his readers laugh, cry but most especially THINK.
• He wrote stories, poems and illustrated them with his amazing drawings. 
• He wrote the first children's book to break into the New York Time's Bestseller List where it stayed for a record-breaking 182 weeks.
• He even learned to play the guitar and to write songs including "A Boy Named Sue" for Johnny Cash.

Now I hope I haven't given it away.  Can you...    Name That Artist?

Was it too easy?    Here is his official website, way fun:  http://www.shelsilverstein.com/  "If you're a dreamer, come in..."

You're up then, etsyketsy!

* Australian writer and illustrator, born in 1958

* Published a prize-winning alphabet book in 1986, which formed the basis for a children's TV series in the UK

* Writes for children

* One of his books has been adapted to become an opera

* Another book was adapted as a play in 2006

* His most recent book includes an animal called a lumpybum!

Etsyketsy!  Can it be . . . . .

Graeme Base

You'd have had a good laugh on me this morning.  I read your latest post and right away, the memory bank brightly lit up with the idea that it was this artist whose alphabet book I own.  Trouble is, they do not have the same name nor were they born the same year.  In fact, they are definitely not the same writer/illustrator.  So much for that spark of madness!  So, to make this a wee bit shorter, I searched lumpybum (which is a funny word all by itself) and found Graeme Base.  Gosh, I hope I'm right.

chameleon