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Last summer I reviewed the first two books in a new series by a longtime favorite of mine, Ellen Potter. Piper Green and the Fairy Tree is a superb bridge chapter book series, ideal for readers ready to move up from leveled readers but not quite ready for something like The Magic Tree House or Junie B. Jones. Speaking of Junie B., Piper Green is the perfect choice for parents, educators and librarians looking for a winning, quirky, articulate girl character who is not sassy and uses words correctly. You can read my review of the first two books in thePiper Green series, which includes a list of Ellen's other books and links to my reviews of them, here.
In Piper Green and the Fairy Tree: The Sea Pony, Piper's Saturday is filled with twists and turns, ups and downs. But that is life on Peek-a-Boo Island off the coast of Maine where the Greens live. Piper and the other islanders ride a lobster to school on the nearby Mink Island. But, bigger kids have to go to school - and live, during the week anyway - on the mainland, and that is what Piper's beloved big brother, Erik does. Home for the weekend, Piper is looking forward to time with Erik. But Erik is not feeling well and can't get out of bed. Piper decides to make him Cinnamon Snakes (cinnamon toast cut in squiggles) because that's what her mom always does when anyone is feeling under the weather. But, the Greens are all out of cinnamon.
In an organic but completely unpredicatble chain of events that perfectly characterizes the unique perspective of Piper herself, a trip to the store to buy cinnamon leads to a bosun's whistle (a gift from the fairies found in the Fairy Tree) to a glimpse of a beautiful new horse to a job as sternman (the "guy who stuffs dead fish into little net bags for lobster bait") to befriending a sea pony (a harbor seal) to finding a skiff lost in a storm to . . . riding atop that beautiful new horse!
Potter fills this series with little details about island life that, along with the maps in the front of the book, help landlocked readers get a real feel for this way of life. But, the real treat is getting to peek into Piper's life, her thought process and how she handles disappointments, new experiences and best of all, how she problem solves. While working as sternman on her father's lobster boat, Piper feeds half of the day's bait to a playful seal responding to her bosun's whistle. Piper begins to think that maybe she can ride this seal, since she learned just how much a horse costs. Piper eventually realizes the impossibility of this plan, but it doesn't get her down, or stop her planning.
The robins are back and busy with nestlings. It's the time of year for finding broken shells of beautiful robin's egg blue in the garden. For "daring fledglings who test their wings too soon" Guardian Patrol fairies will come to the rescue with "stretchers of twigs and last year's spiders' webs", according to (who else) Dr. Flora Fauna of (what else?) The Illustrated Fairy Gazettes, Spring edition.
There is a beautiful Saskatoon Berry tree in my parents' back yard and a nest with robins nearby. They have taken to nesting over the back door and come back every year. Here is one of them, part of a demo piece from my watercolour classes.
Here are some fairy garlands for the month of May. The May Pole Dance is from the Spring edition of the Fairy Gazettes, where it is accompanied by an article on the etiquette of folded wings. Should it be "Wings Up" or "Wings Down"? Just ask Fairy Faux Pas!
Above, a fairy garland woven from the spring flowers that have naturalized in my garden - forget-me-nots, lily of the valley, and primroses. The flowers of the poem won't show up here until June.
Do you believe in fairies? Valentine's Rene Cloke Postcard number 3930.
Posted to an address in Sloane Court, London in 1941.
Message reads ... Dear Virginia I hope you were very good in the car. Don't forget to tell Nanny that your blue pram cover is in the bottom drawer in the day nursery lots of love Nanny.
What do you think about when you read those words sent to a little girl in 1941? I imagine a large town house with a staff of uniformed nannies residing over a nursery located on a floor somewhere far away from the rest of the family. I’m thinking of the days when children of wealthy families were kept 'out of sight and out of mind' other than at set times when they would be brought down to see the mistress of the house. Or is it possible the card was sent by the child's grandmother in the hope it would be seen by her other grandmother? Have I been watching too much Downton Abbey perhaps?
Secrets. Valentine's Rene Cloke Postcard number 4619 - undated and unused.
The Pixy School. Valentine's 'fine art' postcard Number 3715. Sent to Miss Dashwood of Ealing, London in September 1949.
Elfins of the Brook. Valentine's 'fine art' postcard number 3931.
This was sent to the same little girl as the first card this time the message simply reads - See you at tea time xxx
The Dream Fairy. Valentine's Rene Cloke postcard number 4621.
Sent to 'Shirley' with love on her birthday.
Fairy Artists. Valentine's Rene Cloke postcard no 4729 posted on the 21st December 1951.
The Basket Maker. Valentine's Rene Cloke Fairy Series. Posted in 1954.
Sent to a Miss Harris with heaps of love and kisses from Uncle Glynn & Auntie Anne xx
The Little House Beneath the Trees. Valentine's Rene Cloke Fairy Series number 5110.
Sent to 'Sarah darling' unfortunately the card has suffered some water damage, and the message is illegible.
A Song of Summer. Valentine's Rene Cloke postcard no 1330 - undated and unused.
The Fairies go Marketing. Valentines Rene Cloke Postcard No 3332B
Posted on the 1st December 1950 and sent to Darling Angela. Message reads...I thought you would love to see these little fairies going to market. Can you dance as light as a fairy? Love and lots of hugs and kisses from Mummy and Paul xxxx
Can you dance as light as a fairy? I certainly can’t I have two left feet and absolutely no coordination.
I want to know your opinion for my next project. I'm designing and submitting a proposal for a new coloring book, but I can't decide which theme to go with. This would be for adults, and I know I want to include all things with wings, but how??
Halos I adore all things pattern, and placing the circles behind a lovely lady are representative of her personality and purpose. The halo is the radiating circles behind her. When I first heard this concept of patterned halos it was through a Mucha exhibit, where he himself called them halos. It forever changed how I saw them and the stories they tell.
Enchanted Gardens A narrative starting with the garden gate, entering into a world full of florals, landscapes, fairies, angels, and the songs of nature around them. A story unfolds as you wander through the pages, helping to create the mood through your choice of colors.
Will you help me? Vote!
Which theme would you prefer to color in my next coloring book?
I was so excited about my new coloring book coming out that I just had to share some pages with a couple of my closest friends and see how it went!
Needless to say, the ladies fully enjoyed their time coloring with some colored pencils. They actually had a hard time choosing which image to start with!
Diary of a Mad Brownie is the first book in Bruce Coville's new series, The Enchanted Files. I listened to the audio book, and I can tell you that it was the most fun I've had listening in a long time. And it's read by a full cast!
Piper Green and the Fairy Tree marks the sixth book I have reviewed by the wonderful Ellen Potter and I absolutely ADORE it! I reviewed the first book in Potter's Olivia Kidney series, which would make the PERFECT step up for readers after finishing the Piper Green and the Fairy Tree series, back in 2008! It has been such a treat to continue reading her books over the last seven years and
0 Comments on Piper Green and the Fairy Tree AND Piper Green and the Fairy Tree: TOO MUCH GOOD LUCK by Ellen Potter, 95 pp, RL 2 as of 1/1/1900
This year, like many others, has carved new paths in my art career. I have two fairs now under my belt, Times of Future Past (a Cos-Play faire) and the Iowa Metaphysical Fair. All thanks to an amazing woman named Lisa, who has taken me under her wing in the affairs of selling your work at a craft fair.
I will also be at the World of Faeries Fair in Illinois this August, having been invited from the Times Faire. AND there is the possibility of doing two more fairs before the end of the year!
I have also committed to submitting my work to three SciFi Fantasy conventions; DemiCon, which was this past May; CONvergence in July, and ICon (Iowa Icon) in October.
It is crazy to think that I would be setting up tables and doing in person selling. I have been selling online for over 10 years because of my fear of small talk. Yet, I found selling in person rewarding in a new way...I got to meet the people, and they got to meet me!
I had a couple customers say they had either seen my work or bought my work online, and now they got to meet me! I would be so excited if I could do that with an artist I admired.
Once the weekend was over, I came home to this, the reality of life in the art studio. I too am a huge fan of looking at artists' studios....so preen and airy. But I fear in real life, it's a bit more like this....more often than not.
Flash Sale Summer 2015
This Friday, June 12th, I will be having my second EVER flash sale. How many times until it becomes tradition? Well, I plan to have one every six months to help clear things out. So far, here are some peeks into what I have going up on the site.
What's different about this flash sale is it'll be on my website, www.sarabillustration.com, and everything will be listed at the exact same time. The page will go live at 3pm CST. There will also be special "peek a boo" items that will not be advertised, but available during the sale as well. So mark your calendar, set a reminder on your phone, tac up a sticky note, and get ready for a week of sneak peeks, and a fun sale at the end of the week! What a great way to start the weekend. :)
0 Comments on I Think I'm Flying Now as of 6/9/2015 12:16:00 AM
This story may or may not be a fairy tale, though there are certainly fairies in it. However, unlike any of his Victorian forebears or most of his contemporaries, Machen manages to achieve, only a few years before the comfortably kitsch flower fairies of Cicely Mary Barker, the singular feat of rendering fairies terrifying. With James Hogg’s 'Confessions of a Justified Sinner', Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Thrawn Janet’ and several of M. R. James’s marvellous ghost stories, ‘The White People’ is one of only a handful of literary texts that have genuinely unnerved me.
Something about spring makes you think of fairies. I think it is all of the new life that emerges. So, I have been doing a lot of them in my sketchbook lately.
The council is in session...
We also just saw Song of the Sea, a wonderful film by the folks who did The Secret of Kells. It was a beautiful film with a bit of a Spirited Away vibe with a dash of Tolkien's Silmarillion (he was greatly influenced by Celtic and other European mythology). I loved the design and the concept.
It is common mythology around the world of spirits being a part of everything... The world does awaken this time of year from a dormant state.
I can hardly wait to get outside to sketch!
The Leaf Litter...
Even at the Krohn Conservatory!
0 Comments on Spring Fairies as of 3/13/2015 6:36:00 PM
Have you ever Googled yourself? I do. It might look pretentious, but it really gives an insight to where your name is being used, and for me that includes my art. Thankfully I never find much of anything except for my own posts AND these gorgeous cards!
I license out my images to an online craft store called Crafts and Me based in the UK. She sells digital stamps and some rubber ones too. On her blog they host challenges for those who love to make their own cards and paper crafts.
It's striking, in all of my reading the fairy lives in this 'in-between' place. Most would say "I have never seen one, but I believe they have a place on this earth.". I'm paraphrasing of course, but that's the gist.
Interesting. There are definitely those who believe in them, and those that do not, but most fall in the middle. The history of fairies is also of that, they are in the middle. Neither heavenly, nor demonic, just either stuck or thrown out and left to hide.
It started as a romance. I was drawn to the beauty and mystical qualities of the fairy. They appeared to be one with nature, dance on air, and talk to animals. As a child I wanted all of this. I was swooned in. As I grew older I discovered their magic, their power, and the mists of Avalon. There was sensuality and mystery.... all that I thought was stronger and more valuable than anything else I had encountered.
When I first experienced magic I was astonished and thought I had the same power that the fairies had. When I believed I could conjure fire in my own hand out of nothing I thought I could BE someone, or something. I truly believed they were all around hiding and waiting to find the right time to reveal themselves to me. I worked so hard to make them think I was worthy enough for them.
I believed fairies were elemental workers of the earth. They were misunderstood, agents for our environment, spoke to us through runes and other natural tools (fire, water, air, stones, etc.). I thought by being an ambassador for them I was helping the earth and thus my own heart. I thought I was fighting for a better place in this world so full of pain, hate, and disregard for the tree spirit I talked to every day at school. I never saw anyone standing up for them quite like the fairies. Of course I sounded crazy to many.
The Reality Sets In
With most of my experiences, when I came into contact with a fairy or spirit, it was unpleasant and always made my depression worse. Something so beautiful didn't prevent me from thoughts and attempts of suicide, they didn't make me feel valued, loved, or gifted. This isn't to blame the craft and to say it caused these, but it didn't help either, and I thought it would.
In my early adult life I was asked many questions about my faery tradition practices and witchcraft. In an attempt to answer, I began to notice how much of a religion it all was, how it was similar to other religions. A group of people, a hierarchy, priests, elders, book of stories, etc. I had myself convinced it was different, but now not so much. I started to attend a church through a relationship and, although I had MANY negative thoughts and accounts about Christians and the religion, I left my heart open. I was desperate, in pain, stuck, and at my lowest. I fled the paganism and jumped on board. How???
It's simple, all I wanted was to feel loved, to be an agent of the earth, and to freely use my gift for good. I had seen so many testimonies of the love people felt when they gave their life to God, to Jesus, I wanted it too. In my circles, I saw SO many people depressed, searching but never finding, and always wanting to gain more. In my experience I never met a witch who was at peace with who she was in her heart. I know they are out there, but it made me wonder and question from my own perspective.
Because of the mystery found in fairies and their folklore, I can now enjoy and experience the mystery found in the Bible and in God. Because of the belief I had in something unseen before, I can believe in Jesus. Because of my romantic lure into fairytales, I can read the Bible and see my prince, play the princess, and be the warrior on a horse fighting battles.
What I Believe Now
I was given this imagination from the start. I would run around in the backyard pretending I could talk to animals, connect with a tree and learn it's secrets, and fly. I would imagine running then taking off and flying just to fall asleep each night. I have always been drawn to the world of magic, mystery, and ethereal. So why, then, would that go away the moment I started to follow Jesus?
Why would I be given this imagination only to not use it? To deny it? That doesn't make sense. Not with the God that I know.
I wrestled with fairies for a long time after I began studying the Bible. There was nothing to guide me away, or anything that alarmingly stood out telling me to stop, drawing fairies. I read once somewhere that Brian Froud put wings on his fairies as an expression to who they were. To their personality. This resonated with me, and it's part of how I see fairies.
They are expressions of the earth, it's elements, it's spirit, and to aid in the belief that there is more out there than what we see. They are part of our imagination to get us wondering, to see outside the box, and to question.
They exist because we want them to exist. Are they as real as the flower I hold? I don't believe they are real like that. But what that flower does to your senses is what I believe a fairy can do, and that is where they are real.
Fairies represent vitality, freedom, expression, the possibilities, the unknown, wonder, beauty, humor, fears, and even what haunts us.
Interestingly fairies are more like a bridge in my opinion. They are that bridge between real and imaginary. They can bring you closer to God BECAUSE you are free to imagine and wonder. They can bring you closer to nature BECAUSE you're gardening to make a creative fairy garden. They can open up possibilities BECAUSE they are the stuff of magic and give us hope.
Angels are referenced as stars throughout the Bible and spirits of light. Fairies are accompanied by auras of light and twinkling 'fairy dust' about them. They are a reminder of my home, heaven, and the imagination God has given.
Fairies are a sensitive, but intriguing subject. I come from a background of spell casting, fairy seeking, séances, horned gods/goddesses, priestess', and a mountain of metaphysics.
Crone
I describe that because I want you to hear that I studied fairies. My senior project in college was about fairy folklore and the Celts. I was VERY interested in being a high priestess in the occult, and according to many whom I spent my time with, I was well on my way.
Then Jesus grasped my heart and pulled me up for air. To my surprise, this was a very quick, rather simple and easy transition. Except for a few bumps. One was my belief in fairies.
Now where did the fairy stand? This is what I paint, what I love to paint. What do I believe about them now? What do YOU believe about them?
Brian and I were talking about the origins of fairies this past Saturday during a small road trip. I forgot how excited and interested I am in their history, and I hadn't really looked into it again since college. Re-reading about them has sparked my interest as a Christian, and as a professional artist of the fairytale.
This is part one. How many parts will this discussion have? I don't know. Yet I'm so mystified by being a Christian, painting fairies, and all of the gray in the middle, that I can't leave it be.
One Christian belief held that fairies were a class of "demoted" angels.[25] One popular story described how, when the angels revolted, God ordered the gates of heaven shut: those still in heaven remained angels, those in hell became demons, and those caught in between became fairies.[26] Others suggested that the fairies, not being good enough, had been thrown out of heaven, but they were not evil enough for hell.[27] This may explain the tradition that they had to pay a "teind" or tithe to hell: as fallen angels, though not quite devils, they could be seen as subjects of the devil.[28] For a similar concept in Persian mythology, see Peri.
A third, related belief was the fairies were demons entirely.[29] This belief became much more popular with the growth of Puritanism.[30] The hobgoblin, once a friendly household spirit, became a wicked goblin.[31] Dealing with fairies was in some cases considered a form of witchcraft and punished as such in this era.[32] Disassociating himself from such evils may be why Oberon, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, carefully observed that neither he nor his court feared the church bells.[33]
The belief in their angelic nature was less common than that they were the dead, but still found popularity, especially in Theosophist circles.[34][35] Informants who described their nature sometimes held aspects of both the third and the fourth belief, or observed that the matter was disputed.[34]
If I'm a Christian then, should I believe this? That fairies are demons? Is what I create demonic or a symbol of the demonic? Upon further reading on other sites I read this (found on this site):
Evil spirits are like actors. They will take on any role that suits their cause or present climate. If people want angels, they will be angels. Departed loved ones? This is one of their best performances. Fairies? If that’s what people want, and if there are people out there who are seeking them out and want to communicate with them, they will be happy to wear the badge and play the part.The Bible tells us that even Satan himself "... masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14). However, a demon is a demon and will lie, deceive and lead people astray.
The end result is spiritual bondage and ruin. Demons, in their many guises, will lead you up a very slippery path of deceit and despair, wanting you to focus on them rather than God and the peace and salvation He gives through faith in Jesus Christ.
I can agree that they usually are described having the nature/personality of biblical demons. As much as it pains me to say it. Even as a fairy believer I never saw them (the ones I wanted to see) as demonic, but more elemental to help. Like the ones in Disney's Fantasia.
I am left chewing on this resounding throughout information, the belief from the Christian religion that all fairies are demons. In a couple of days I hope to share and explain why, then, if this is the belief, are so many fairies painted as bright, sweet, adorable little people? Is it still part of Satan's act to get us to follow him, making them more romantic and captivating? Or is there more to the story?
Thank you to my Aunt Ellen, who gifted me with an early birthday present, a gnome house. The gnomes that live in my kitchen will love it. Perhaps, they will do the dishes for me now.
Uh oh, the Dental Twins, Frank and Justine are eyeing the home. They aren’t too keen living on the cold windowsill.
Frank investigates.
Could be a war between the Dental Twins and the Kitchen Gnomes. Stay tuned…
0 Comments on A Gnome House Arrives as of 1/1/1900
Like many families, now we’re in the run up to Christmas, we’re spending time getting crafty together, making presents and decorations, and this book has given us hours of delight. Full of ideas about how to customise wooden peg dolls into adorable characters, Bloom also provides lots of tutorials for how to use your peg dolls in innovative ways, such as in mobiles, wands, wall hangings and pincushion embellishments.
Super clear and friendly instructions, made beautiful and even easier to follow by the inclusion of simple but beautiful watercolour illustrations along with many photos of all sorts of children making and playing with peg dolls made sure this book really appealed to my kids as soon as they set eyes on it.
That the instructions are easy to follow and result in items which the kids are really proud of was clearly demonstrated by the way my 9 year old, M, took the book off by herself and created her first ever felt toys:
Although M was totally absorbed by herself in her sewing, as a parent I especially enjoyed Bloom’s emphasis in her instructions on how the whole family can take part in making their own peg dolls; she clearly indicates which parts even the youngest children can get involved with, and encourages us grown-ups to be involved, but also to let our kids do their own things with the dolls. This book isn’t about parents turning out coffee-table-book-worthy gorgeous ornaments (although we’re definitely encouraged to play, sew and create along side the kids); it really is about facilitating children’s exploratory play and creativity.
The book includes a list of suppliers of peg dolls, felt and one or two other items that are especially nice to use (such as artificial/millinery flower stamens) and I would heartily encourage you to gift a bundle of supplies, including some watercolours, with this book so that the recipient can dive in straight away. I’ve personally used Craftshapes for my blank wooden peg dolls in the past and they’ve always be lovely to deal with.
What we started with
Here are some of the characters we created:
Whilst painting, sewing, sticking and playing we listened to:
Wedding of the Painted Doll, one of the hit songs from the musical “The Broadway Melody” – indeed, it reach #1 in the charts in 1929! Another version with more lyrics can be heard here.
The doll dance from Delibe’s ballet Coppélia
Come Over To My Dollhouse by Lunch Money. Whilst in some ways this is a world away from the lovely peg dolls made by Bloom (which are the antithesis to Barbie, who does feature in this song), the video is enormous fun and might inspire you and your kids to make your own video for your favourite music.
If you want ideas about how to take things a step further with your peg dolls take a look at:
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed Making Peg Dolls & More: Toys that spin, fly and bring sweet dreams: It is beautiful to look at and filled with enticing projects, which are both achievable and give results to delight in. It is also a book which is very proud to be just a starting point; it’s really about giving you ideas which will bloom in you and your kids’ imaginations.
What family craft books would you recommend?
Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher.
3 Comments on Making Peg Dolls & More – a very satisfying craft book for families, last added: 11/25/2014
Love-love-love this post! Thanks again, Zoe! I love the ballet Coppelia. It was the first live ballet I saw as a child’ sigh.
Catherine said, on 11/25/2014 1:27:00 AM
This post has brought back so many wonderful childhood memories. My sister and I often made peg dolls as children and my daughter would love to make these. One to add to my Christmas wishlist
Zoe said, on 11/25/2014 8:14:00 AM
Catherine, if you bundle the book up with some of the things you need (felt, blanks,etc) this will make a gorgeous present that will give hours of delight
It started here. I made five fairy busts for my book demonstrating the different ways to approach painting skin tones.
It then moved onto this without me realizing it, I began doodling them with this crazy spiral hair during Inktober.
At the end of October I listed the five busts from my book to be sold during my first Flash Sale at my Etsy shop. They went so fast! I didn't think something so small and so simple would be that popular.
Once the sale was all finished and I had so many envelopes to draw on, I decided to continue with these wee fairy busts as a way to "brand" the sale. I came up with a simple design and modified it for each envelope. Every envelope from a sale during that day has a fairy bust drawn on it. You can view all of them on my Facebook Page.
Now, with all of that said and done, here is where I have ended up.
I think I am border line obsessed with these wee ladies. They are quick, full of sweet personality, and I really can't wait to paint them. I envision them in tiny ornate frames hanging together or in the smallest of nooks and crannies around the house. Just like a fairy! They measure about 2x2 inches.
I love them so much I made myself into one!
0 Comments on Mini Inspirations as of 11/7/2014 6:17:00 PM
It used to be my favorite holiday. Seriously, over Christmas. Who needs gifts when you can dress up into your wildest fantasy? That's what I used to think.
The question I ask myself this morning, on Halloween, is:
The image on the left was painted in 1996. I was in 8th grade, obsessed with the movie "The Crow", listening to heavy metal, and addicted to Gen 13 and Witchblade comic books. I believe it was around that time I dressed like the Catwoman from Batman Returns for Halloween. Whip and all. Yep, I thought I was quite the bad girl. I hid behind a made up character I named "Raven", who I drew all the time, made stories for, and just simmered there. Angry and lost.
She followed me all through high school and into my freshman year of college.
1997
1998
1999
In college she began to morph, just a little. And although I invented other stories to hide myself behind, she was always there. I tried so hard to hold on and not forget who I thought I was.
2003 - Heavily into Manga and still learning watercolor
2004 - Style used for my senior project in college.
When I left college the real soul searching started. I continued to practice witchcraft, but grew in my watercolor and figure drawing skills. I entered into some really difficult relationships, did my years of exploring the night life, and hit rock bottom.
Enter the church. Now wait, don't jump the gun yet. There was LIGHT. I lived in the shadows so long, it was refreshing and very unexpected. I was skeptical but continued to find faith in it. I always had faith I would find LOVE. Find TRUTH. Find WHO I WAS. Who I AM.
I can't paint the darkness like what's above anymore. I try, and this is what happens:
This image (just below), after many years of searching, is the truth of who I am. I hide behind masks to protect my heart, but it's golden because I am a child of light, the daughter of He who is LIGHT. I wander through the night, not because I am lost, because I'm hunting evil and snuffing it out to make the night safe and beautiful. I have wings so that I can fly, because I am free. These are the truths I have learned through the years, and it is because of these truths I can not go back. I am glad that Raven is now a face who smiles, who comforts, who flies in to bring LIGHT. Not death, pain, or sadness.
So Halloween you say? Sure, I'll dress up, I'll laugh and find the joy in it, but the holiday used to have such meaning to me - freedom to hide. I think today as we celebrate dressing up and scaring away ghosts and goblins, I see myself as a warrior who doesn't need to hide anymore behind costumes, it doesn't matter anymore. So, I'll happily eat some zombie finger pretzels and begin to look forward to Christmas, when family, love, light, and joy are all dancing about.
0 Comments on Why Halloween Doesn't Matter Anymore as of 1/1/1900
There is a quarrel inside me about fairies, and the form of literature their presence helps to define. I have never tried to see a fairy, or at least not since I was five years old. The interest of Casimiro Piccolo reveals how attitudes to folklore belong to their time: he was affected by the scientific inquiry into the paranormal which flourished – in highly intellectual circles – from the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth. But he also presents a test case, I feel, for the questions that hang around fairies and fairy tales in the twenty-first century. What is the point of them? What are the uses of such enchantments today? The absurdity of this form of magical belief (religious miracles are felt to be different, and not only by believers) creates a quarrel inside me, about the worth of this form of literature and entertainment I enjoy so much. In what way am I ‘away with the fairies’, too?
This watercolor is part of the collection owned by the Family Piccolo of Calanovella Foundation, created by Baron Casimiro Piccolo of Calanovell, www.fondazionepiccolo.it. All rights reserved. Used with their permission.
Suspicion now hangs around fairy tales because the kind of supernatural creatures and events they include belong to a belief system nobody subscribes to anymore. Even children, unless very small, are in on the secret that fairyland is a fantasy. In the past, however, allusions to fairies could be dangerous not because belief in them was scorned, but because they were feared: Kirk collected the beliefs of his flock in order to defend them against charges of heterodoxy or witchcraft, and, the same time as Kirk’s ethnographical activities, Charles Perrault published his crucially influential collection (l697), in which he pokes fun, with suave courtly wit, at the dangerousness of witches and witchcraft, ogres and talking animals. Perrault is slippery and ambiguous. His Cinderella is a tale of marvellously efficacious magic, but he ends with a moral: recommending his readers to find themselves well-placed godmothers. Not long before he was writing his fairy tales, France and other places in Europe had seen many people condemned to death on suspicion of using magic. The fairy tale emerges as entertainment in a proto-enlightenment move to show that there is nothing to fear.
The current state of fairy tale – whether metastasized in huge blockbuster films or refreshed and re-invigorated in the fiction of Robert Coover, Donald Barthelme, Margaret Atwood or, most recently, Helen Oyeyemi (Mr Fox, and, this year, Boy Snow Bird) does not invite, let alone compel, belief in its magic elements as from an audience of adepts or faithful. Contemporary readers and audiences, including children over the age of 6, are too savvy about special effects and plot lines and the science/magic overlap to accept supernatural causes behind Angelina Jolie’s soaring in Maleficent or the transmogrifications of the characters. Nor do they, nor do we need to suspend disbelief in the willed way Coleridge described.
Rather the ways of approaching the old material – Blue Beard, The Robber Bridegroom, Hansel & Gretel, Snow White and so on – opens up the stories to new meanings. The familiar narrative becomes the arena for raising questions; the story’s well known features provide a common language for thinking about families and love, childhood and marriage. Fairies and their realm allow thought experiments about alternative arrangements in this world. We are no longer looking for fairies at the bottom of the garden, but seeing through them to glimpse other things. As the little girl realises in The Servant’s Tale by Paula Fox, her grandmother through her stories ‘saw what others couldn’t see, that for her the meaning of one thing could also be the meaning of a greater thing.’ In the past, these other, greater things were most often promises – escape, revenge, recognition, glory – but the trend of fairy tales is turning darker, and many retellings no longer hold out such bright eyed hope.
Featured image credit: Sleeping Beauty, by Viktor M. Vasnetsov. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
By: Frances Tyrrell,
on 12/6/2016
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on 8/15/2016
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By: Shelf-employed,
on 8/31/2015
This year, like many others, has carved new paths in my art career. I have two fairs now under my belt, Times of Future Past (a Cos-Play faire) and the Iowa Metaphysical Fair. All thanks to an amazing woman named Lisa, who has taken me under her wing in the affairs of selling your work at a craft fair.
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By: Zoe,
on 11/23/2014
It started here. I made five fairy busts for my book demonstrating the different ways to approach painting skin tones.
Love-love-love this post! Thanks again, Zoe! I love the ballet Coppelia. It was the first live ballet I saw as a child’ sigh.
This post has brought back so many wonderful childhood memories. My sister and I often made peg dolls as children and my daughter would love to make these. One to add to my Christmas wishlist
Catherine, if you bundle the book up with some of the things you need (felt, blanks,etc) this will make a gorgeous present that will give hours of delight