Online Event: "Women Who Run with the Wolves" by The Henry Moore Institute (Wed 18 Nov - Free!)

"Princess Furball" (Allerleirauh, a Grimms Fairy Tale) 2016 by Timea Tallian

The offerings on fairy tale studies online during the pandemic have been one of the very few bright spots of the pandemic. If you're serious about learning more on fairy tales and folktales, there are affordably priced events, programs, and courses happening almost every week at this point, as well as the occasional free one - like this event we're posting today. (The most difficult issue is having to choose which ones to go to and which to skip, while juggling full-time work and full-time homeschool all in one day!)

While this isn't focused on "the fairy tale", the talk will be of interest if you're at all familiar with Dr. Clariss Pinkola Estes, who uses a wide variety of fairy tales and folktales in her discussions, but it will be especially interesting to those who are drawn to the group of fairy tales that include Donkeyskin, All-Fur, Thousand Furs, Catskin and Allerleirauh.

As the information for the Women Who Run With the Wolves event is quite detailed we will just add the information below:

Women Who Run with the Wolves

by The Henry Moore Institute

Rachel Goodyear - Hoard (2020)

 A discussion about Paloma Varga Weisz's sculpture in relation to Clarissa Pinkola Estés' feminist study, Women Who Run with the Wolves. 

We are delighted to introduce a new online format for our rescheduled research events. You can now attend our series of lectures, symposia and discussions online. We invite you to watch recorded talks, submit your questions and attend a later live discussion.

"Dr Estes defined wildness as not uncontrolled behavior but a kind of savage creativity, the instinctual ability to know what tool to use and when to use it." - Dirk Johnson, The New York Times

This event brings together a diverse range of speakers to discuss the Henry Moore Institute's current exhibition, Paloma Varga Weisz: Bumped Body, in dialogue with Clarissa Pinkola Estés' renowned cult classic and revisionary feminist study, Women Who Run with the Wolves: Contacting the Power of the Wild Woman (1992).

Central to the research questions of the event is the place of feminism in contemporary art, as explored through the creative interpretation of its many methodologies.

Pre-recorded talks will cover psychoanalysis, metamorphosis, embodied storytelling, fairy tales and gender. Speakers are artists, choreographers, curators and literary scholars working both internationally and locally, offering a range of viewpoints and new interdisciplinary approaches to the interpretation of narrative sculpture.

We would like to thank Dr Catriona McAra of Leeds Arts University for convening the speakers and leading the event.

Programme
From 11 November

by Madchen Photography Studios

These talks are available to watch after registering for this event. You can watch them on our website, henry-moore.org/wolves, or here on Eventbrite by accessing the event portal (click the 'Access the event' button). You will need a password to watch them, which will be sent to you upon registering for the event (scroll down your confirmation email to the 'Additional Information' section).

Introduction: The Fur of the Fairy Tale - Dr Catriona McAra (Curator, Leeds Arts University)

Clothed (in) Animals: Contemporary Women Artists Reimagining Fairy-Tale Creatures - Dr Mayako Murai (Writer, Kanagawa University)

Beneath the Surface, A Vibration Through the Bones - Rachel Goodyear (Artist, Manchester)

The Shapeshifting Woman and Other Tales of Becoming - Hannah Buckley (Choreographer, Leeds)

by Katie Ponder

Wednesday 18 November, 6pm (please check the website to calculate the starting time for your timezone.)

A live discussion with speakers Dr Catriona McAra, Rachel Goodyear and Hannah Buckley. They will be answering any questions you might have once you've watched their individual talks. You can submit your questions live during the event or in advance. This session will take place on Zoom.

For much more additional information about the speakers, please check the event page HERE, where you can also REGISTER FOR FREE.

Sensitive Tales As A Metaphor For Living With Conditions and Illness

These beautiful illustrations, by artist, Diana Renjina, are not, as it might first appear, for - or from - a fairy tale, but they illustrate beautifully how unusual tales of sensitivity can bring a different perspective to living with illnesses, particularly those that manifest on the skin. As you can see from the text accompanying the images, the blooming flowers and sprouting greenery symbolize psoriasis, a common, non-contagious skin condition in which the skin gets "rosy" and sometimes scaly or flaky, and can be itchy and even painful. 

Tales that come most quickly to mind are those like The Princess and the Pea, in which the princess bruises easily but also those other tales that feature skin marks and other unusual symptoms when the main character is affected by the elements (from the lightest touch of a petal - perhaps allergies, to moonlight - which could substitute easily for conditions brought on by the environment like asthma). With The Most Sensitive Woman (from Italy) and The Three Delicate Wives of King Virtue-Banner (from India) it's not difficult to extrapolate different medical conditions that might be occurring here. Tales like Donkeyskin and Allerleirauh, in which the maiden hides herself under mud and more, show a physical response to being touched/affected by the world and their various environments. In these cases, the Donkeyskin tale types can illustrate how being abused can bring about conditions of illness, though we won't go into that in this post.

Tales of transformation, too, can bring a new perspective on living with visible diseases. From The Frog King, to Hans My Hedgehog to The Wild Swans, it's clear the transformation is not wanted, is painful and considered ugly, and, sadly, often less than human, so that these poor cursed or affected people have to prove themselves worthy or find a way (usually a difficult, extreme and long-term process) to be cured.

More recently, possibly due to technology such as digital animation and art, it's becoming more common to see fairy tale-type illustrations in which patterns, flowers, plants, frost and other beautiful natural manifestations sprout - literally - from the skin. There's no doubt these images call to mind fairy tales, even if they're not specific and familiar ones we've heard, and whether or not it's intentional, it seems instinctive to parallel the tragic beauty of a natural - yet unusual - physical manifestation of a condition with the (usually) melancholic hero or heroine it's happening too, such as could be described in these images in this post.

When we do not "feel good in our own skin" we cannot help but try to do something about it. Some try to deal with it by using salves, medicines, trying to find a cure. Others try to escape it all together and find ways to cover themselves; we put on costumes, (either by dressing differently than we otherwise would, or literally creating a costume which incorporates - or hides - the condition) or, essentially, a different skin. 

In fairy tales this can happen literally. There is an interesting looking book titled: Fairy Tales and the Social Unconscious: The Hidden Language written by Ravit Raufman, that discusses the idea of how we identify with our skin - and how we look. We have only skimmed it, so cannot speak to the whole work but it has very interesting things to say about the physical manifestations in fairy tales such as Donkeyskin indicating an unhealthy state - whether that's psychologically or (sometimes and) physically.

What we have to wonder is, if we could see some of these diseases as not needing to be 'cured' but more of an unusual condition that manifests under certain circumstances (like stress - which is a trigger for almost everything), would we be more understanding and accepting of people's conditions than we, as society, currently are right now?

Here's an illustration by a different artist, Lynore Avery, showing the youngest brother in The Wild Swans tale-types, having to live with his only partially 'healed' condition. Illustrated like this, with feathers overlapping like scales or unusual skin cells, it seems to underscore the physical issues of the problem and shows the remnants of the 'hidden' curse, but it also hints at a Magic, and, possibly, a potential we haven't yet considered. 

Accepting this about oneself if always easier when others close to you do, and this is where sensitive stories like these could be helpful. While using fairy tales to explore these ideas could be condemned as romanticizing a very real condition, we think it might also bring healing and new understanding, especially for those of us who live with and love their swan princes, just the way they are. Then we might be able to finally accept our own skin and live out our story, happy ending-possibilities and all.

Chronotopia's Dark Fairy Tale Visual Novel Seeks to Put You In Donkeyskin's Shoes (Kickstarter Project)

... in a visual novel where you make the choices that save her, or doom her to death - multiple times.

Currently on Kickstarter, with just under a month to go till the funding goal, this project is a "visual novel" with aspects of game play, in which the reader makes choices (by clicking on the options) to move the story forward.

From the site:

A dark and mature rewriting of a forgotten fairytale with many twists. Will you save Donkeyskin or doom her?In Chronotopia, you incarnate a soul who recently found their way in Purgatory. The soul has to find the memories of their previous life again, otherwise they’ll be damned. You’re assisted by a mysterious young girl who has the power to travel through lost worlds –the uchronia, which are actually rewritings of fairytales. During your journey in the fairytale world, you will witness events that can grant the soul fragments of their buried memories. The number of fragments you collect will affect the fate of the soul.

Chronotopia is a dark retelling of the fairytale of Donkeyskin, which is very similar to Cinderella. Here, instead of remarrying, the heroine’s father decides he should wed her instead, so she has to escape with the help of her fairy godmother to finally be able to meet the prince. And that’s where we present our version with a more...realistic and mature approach to spice things up. Of course, the choices you make will also affect her fate: she can either escape with her servant, become a fairy herself or die in a horrible way. Multiple times. 

• A unique take on a forgotten fairytale with many twists

• Branching story where choices affect the endings: will you save the protagonists or doom them?

• Beautiful artwork, with animated backgrounds and special stained-glass illustrations  

• Extensive use of RenPy 3D camera for a more dynamic presentation 

• Several segments allowing you to freely explore the castle to discover its secrets  

• A full original soundtrack with celtic influences

As you can see, even though Chronotopia is a visual novel, there will also be several gameplay segments through the game to enhance the experience and offer a more dynamic presentation.

The Donkeyskin story is blended with a few different gaming, anime and folktale aspects to make for an unusual combination. While the Donkeyskin premise seems fairly apparent, especially at the outset, the journey into Purgatory and taking on the powers of a fairy, for a price, aren't usually part of the package. The time factor is obviously key, with a name like "Chronotopia", but how that works isn't entirely clear.

With grownup themes and the words "dark" and "adult" attached it's also unclear which demographic the novel/game is aimed at, especially with such appealing storybook-like illustrations.

The decision to make Donkeyskin/Kionna a princess of color is an interesting one, and adds interesting and different undertones to an already disturbing tale. Although some aspects like the role of the fairy and why the Princess is the character going through Purgatory are intriguing, it's the choice in having a Princess of color, the implications of such and, as a result, the different lens through which to view the tale, that is the most appealing to us. If you delve into the world of Chronotopia, we'd love to know.

We find no references to apps, Android or iPads for the final product but it will be multiplatform for the most common PCs (Mac, PC, Linux). In the meantime you can download various demos HERE.

If you're interested to know more, head over to the Kickstarter page. There is a lot of information about the developer team and other aspects of the project as well.

Update 9/29/16: A mobile version of the game is a stretch goal at present. Also dark doesn't mean 18+. We have been reassured by the creators that this is quite appropriate for all teens.

Cap O' Rushes by Severino Baraldi

It's been a while since I did an art post so I dug into my drafts folder and found these gems to share. They are one of the set of fairy tale illustrations by the prolific and amazing Italian painter, Severino Baraldi.

You can be forgiven if you're from the US or UK and not aware of his work. He seems far better known in Europe, though that's a shame because his work is stunning. This is where my love of the internet knows no bounds - to have access to so many the fantastic things, especially writers and artists, that, till now, have been sequestered in their own countries and regions for whatever reason. Now we can all appreciate and enjoy the beauty!

The original source alerting me to this set said these illustrations are from a German tale titled, Prinzessin Binsenkappe, loosely translated as Princess Rush-Hood (or Cap O' Rushes).

Born in 1930, his illustrations cover a range of historical subjects, vehicles and Biblical subjects as well as fairy tales.

Aren't they beautiful? There are many more of Baraldi's "enchanted illustrations" on the web and by searching Pinterest HERE and Flickr HERE too.

He would seem to be quite an admirer of Gustav Tenggren (whose fairy tale work you likely know well, including Tenggren's influence on Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), but especially with regard to his 1001 Arabian Nights illustrations (see comparisons below), to the extent he reposed almost identical scenes. This style sensibility he seemed to carry through to his other fairy tale work though, like Cap O' Rushes shown above, and he ended up producing some truly beautiful pieces. I'm surprised we don't see his work more often, especially since it lends itself so well to popular animation styles today.

Baraldi was actually offered work in animation earlier in his career but he turned it down in favor of creating a huge set of Biblical illustrations. It should be noted, though, that he got his start in art by doing chalk drawings on pavement to entertain customers of a local barber's shop, as well as doing cartoons for a newspaper before moving on to more "serious art" and study, so seeing him return to a stylized form of these art expressions shouldn't be too surprising. I'm glad he did. These are some of the most beautiful and delightful works he produced. Although the others are amazing and the detail and technique are quite awe inspiring, it's these fairy tale illustrations that capture the imagination.

Baraldi has had quite a busy life, one which seems to have him constantly employed in illustration of one kind or another throughout, which is a great achievement in itself. He's now retired and enjoying his family, although I have no doubt his paint brushes aren't gathering dust now either. :)

You can read up on a detailed explanation of his biography and illustrations HERE.

Peau d'Ane Fashion Shoot by Carter Smith

This fashion shoot is largely inspired by the 1970 French film, Peau d'Ane, starring Catherine Deneuve. it was shot by fashion photographer, Carter Smith, who in 2006 turned his talents to filmmaking and is the same year this shoot was done.

Carter Smith started as a fashion photographer, moved into directing fashion related commercials then submitted his first short film, Bugcrush to the Sundance Film Festival in 2006, winning the top shorts filmmaking prize. He still works in photography but filmmaking is now his main focus.

This particular fashion shoot clearly shows an interest in telling stories via images, beyond the fashion shoot requirement of making both the clothes and model look beautiful. Though these images are bright and pretty there's still a hint of darkness in them, something which apparently appeals to Carter Smith.

From Bangor Daily News:

Asked what draws him to a project, Smith replied: “It’s usually dark and it’s usually, in some way, mildly unsettling — or extremely unsettling.”

I have no idea if using Peau d'Ane (Donkeyskin) was his idea (as far as I understand usually the design of the shoot isn't the photographer's choice) but it is the type of tale that would appeal to his sensibilities and the lush style of filmmaking of the 1970 film would have meshed well.

While we're on the subject of the film, via a (very substandard) online translation of the French Wikipedia page for the 1970 film Peau d'Ane are these interesting references to other fairy tales used in the film, as well as some cultural references. I'll copy and paste directly so please forgive the weird phrasing among other things:

The film also contains many references:Other tales of Perrault 

• When Donkey Skin arrives at the farm during his flight, all the characters are like sleeping, frozen in their activity, as in The Sleeping Beauty

• "Old" hosting Donkey Skin spitting toads, as the eldest in Fairies . It refers to Little Red Riding Hood , addressing the prince; (Edit FTNH: I'm a little lost on the connection between The Fairies and LRRH here)

• Two farmhands make fun of Donkey Skin in the nicknaming "Cinderwench", as does the elder half-sisters of Cinderella 

• The "ball of cats and birds," organized by the Red Queen, to host the 
Marquis de Carabas , a character appearing in Puss in Boots , but quoted in the story

• Thibaud said Donkey Skin it is the ugly beast after the wolf .

Other Stories

• The glass coffin in the film for the deceased mother of the heroine, is a reference to 
Snow White and Grimm

• The mirror of Donkey Skin, who reveals to distance the reaction of his father after his escape, is a reference to the magic mirror of Beauty and the Beast , which can reveal truths through images of distant.

Modern Literature

• The blue king bed to his daughter, verses written by poets of the future, in a collection which was donated by the Lilac Fairy:

• Love of Guillaume Apollinaire , taken from The Watcher melancholy

• The Muses of Jean Cocteau , extract Ode to Picasso

• Dialogue between the prince and the rose is an evocation of the dialogue between 
the Little Prince of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and his rose.

Popular tradition

• Entitled to a cake recipe of love , a song of the film takes the analogy between the bean of the Twelfth Night cake and the sign of love (ring) left by Donkey Skin in the cake for the prince.

• The king's beard is red flower, a reference to Charlemagne , "the emperor with the flowing beard"

 

MusicThe Lilac Fairy, Godmother of Donkey Skin, is the name of the last fairy godmother commuting the fate of the wicked fairy to sleep for one hundred years in the ballet of Tchaikovsky , The Sleeping Beauty .

There are quite a number of historical references too. Makes me wish there was an "annotated version" released of the film with commentaries and mini-documentaries showing all the connections, like I've seen appear recently since Bluray has gotten popular. Maybe this fashion shoot would make it to the extras these days.

Even if I can't have my wish for such a print, it definitely makes me want to see the film again. It also makes me curious about how the current Christophe Gans production of Beauty and the Beast is going to go. Peau d'Ane has definite homages to Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête and I can't imagine a new French fairy tale film not giving at least a subtle nod to the 1946 black and white classic.

A poster I haven't seen before for Pea d'Ane

"Red Kingdom Rising"

 A troubled young woman must come to terms with her horrific past when she is propelled through dreams into the terrifying fairy tale world of the Red Kingdom, where she encounters figures reminiscent of her memories and fears. 

This new independent film coming out this year combines shades of Donkeyskin and Alice - both in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. It's billed as fantasy horror and will be making the independent film/festival circuit as well. Interestingly, the director has stated he's not actually a fan of horror; that it's the subject matter (think Donkeyskin with black magic thrown in) which is crossing this film over into that genre. From the look of the teaser trailer Im going to warn you now: although it does have some beautiful images here and there it's most definitely horror. (You'll notice this post does not have the usual amount of images and the poster above is cropped... for good reason.) If you're wondering why I'm covering this film on the blog at all, it's so you know about it in advance, should it ever cross your path.


From flickeringmyth:

In addition to lining the pockets of the Hollywood studios, fairy tales – with their dark and often violent undertones – are also perfect fodder for the fantasy/horror genre, and that’s the approach that British filmmaker Navin Dev has taken with his micro-budget feature debut, Red Kingdom Rising. Taking inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – and, more specifically, its sequel,Through the Looking-Glass – Red Kingdom Rising centres on a young woman, Mary Ann (Emily Stride), who returns to her childhood home following the death of her father. Mary Ann’s arrival stirs up painful memories long suppressed, and as she begins to confront her past she finds herself swept into a nightmarish dream world, where a young girl dressed as Alice (albeit with her face obscured by a Cheshire Cat mask) explains that her only chance of escape is to confront the sinister Red King – the embodiment of her childhood fears, and her darkest secrets.

The Pineal Eye posted an interview with the director Navin Dev and asked him many questions in relation to fairy tales. Here's an excerpt:

Were you always drawn to fairy tale stories?I grew up on films like Star Wars, Superman and even the 1984 He-Man animated series. The irony is that if you distil those three down to their true essence you have coming of age stories – the path and destiny of the hero. It’s highly evocative of mythology and the traditional tale of the evolution of the hero through fears, hopes and success. This lies in the core of the fairy tale. Fairy tales have always evoked a sense of truth of who we are and how we journey through our own psychosis and development in life. The analytical works of Joseph Campbell and Bruno Bettelheim firmly illustrate that. One of the very first books I read was the Grimm’s Little Red Riding Hood and the imagery told through the narrative struck me. It’s a timeless tale we can all relate to, no matter what our generation and backgrounds are. Red Kingdom Rising, along with keeping to Lewis Carroll’s themes of reality and dreams, divine mathematics and psychological evolution, does adhere to traditional mythology. It tells the coming of age journey of a woman coming to terms with her past through this dark journey in her wonderland. 

Do you plan on exploring others in future works?I indeed plan to continue exploring the fairy tale and mythological structure through the mainstream fantasy genre of film – it’s great to reach out to vast commercial audiences and to share meaningful stories through an entertaining way. 

Do you work in the short film format to intentionally match the stories, or is it just a preferred way of working? Do you have any plans for a feature length film in the future?My short films were mainly built to develop my technical abilities in how to aesthetically tell fairy tale stories in an entertaining way, but yes, they do match the structure and short time frame format of the generic fairy tale. What’s advantageous about the short films is that they use the time efficiently and tell the audience all they need to know within their short form – they’re short, sweet and powerful. Red Kingdom Rising’s story however demanded a bigger canvass, so the story dictated itself to be feature length. I wanted to fully explore the protagonist Mary Ann, along with her fears and her eventual epic sense of closure. I would be grateful to have the opportunity to continue with the feature length format and I do indeed have another story to tell.

You can read the whole interview HERE and see a Red Kingdom Rising teaser trailer HERE. The official website is HERE.

Dev previously tackled the story of Pinocchio in a 9 minute short film titled The Tree Man which is fairly creepy (as it combines the original ending Collodi wrote for Pinocchio in which he was hanged, with the revised ending he added on advice from his editor) so take that into consideration. You can find more information about The Tree Man and see a clip of it HERE.

While this may be an interesting - and even well done - film, I'll be giving this one a miss.

Snow White & Rose Red by Chris Beatrice (& a note on the importance of illustration)

Snow White & Rose Red by Chris Beatrice

I've posted on this artist before and no doubt will again because not only is he a beautiful artist, I love that he shares his process: both regarding technique and the thoughts behind constructing the image. For this particular one he has a wonderful blog post HERE in which he takes you through step by step in making the painting. He thinks about the characters, what they do in their lives and the important aspects of the story they're in.

For example, in the tutorial he gives us close-ups of both girls and explains a little of his thoughts on each and how he imbued the painting, not only with aspects of their personalities but also of their parts in the story, foreshadowing what's to come.

Here's a few comments on the room and the girls in particular:

Everything in the picture has to contribute to what you're trying to do, or it will undoubtedly work against it. You need to think about it all - color, value, lighting, mood, viewpoint, content, facial expression, body language, costumes, things, stuff - everything! For "stuff", I like to think about what these folks do when I'm not looking at them. How do they scurry up that ladder when they go to bed at night? What is just slightly "off camera" that we may not be seeing? What's in that jug on the shelf? What kinds of visitors come and hang their coats on that coat rack by the door? Who winds that clock? What do the girls do during the day - I know, they pick cherries - there's a basket of them under the ladder...

Here's a detail shot of the mantle. Red is more active and wild - she likes to catch butterflies, so there's a jar of butterflies above her. Snow likes to read, so there's a stack of books above her.

On Snow White:

At one point in the story the girls are rescuing a dwarf whose beard has gotten stick in the split of a log. Snow whips out a little pair of scissors and cuts the beard, freeing him. There they are... 

And a close-up of Rose Red (he takes you through the painting process/build-up via this close-up):

I like that he put Rose closer to Bear's teeth - it quietly shows us she's more daring than Snow, who is gently stroking the soft side of Bear's head. I love the curious goat behind Bear too.

You can find many more of Chris Beatrice's illustrations at his website HERE and see lots of art, art-in-progress and fantastic tutorials, like this one, on his blog HERE.

Do go show your appreciation and support. There's this nutty idea going about that there's a dearth of good illustrators these days (and apparently of strong narrative stories too!) and that just isn't true. Just look at the stunning illustrations for the new editions of the Lang Color Fairy Books being produced by the Folio Society HERE (to see the Green, Brown, Red etc books, scroll down the Folio page for links).

I will say one thing in regard to fairy tale collections though: one of the things I dearly loved (and love!) about the Andrew Lang, Joseph Jacobs and the Grimms Household Tales collections is that these text-heavy works have unforgettable illustrations throughout. I don't think these "anthologies" would have been as popular, or impacted as many generations as they have, without them. Fairy tale "memory" (I speak collectively here) is strongly linked to illustration. In this digital age of internet and access to almost anyone who logs into the world wide web we have an incredible resource that simply wasn't available - at least not to the common man - even just twenty years ago. Now we have collections and translations of all kinds, more than we could ever really read in a lifetime, yet I worry that many of these will fade out of public circulation in future and exist only in elite libraries - libraries which may not be able to access them in the future as they thought. (Note that there is a rising concern of the degradation of digital data for filmmakers and artists of all kinds who rely on digitization of any form. Why? Because the "decay" beings almost instantly and nothing much is being done about it. See link for details.)

Donkeyskin by Chris Beatrice

 It's the paintings of the Pre-Raphelites that brought myth and legend (and fairy tales too, to some extent) back into the public eye (I'm speaking very generally here - historically it's more complicated than that) and it was illustrators like Arthur Rackham who worked extensively (though not exclusively) on large collections of fairy tales that captured the public's imagination and possibility of owning a piece of that "magic" for themselves. Fortunately many of the tales came with that "magic" and they lived on - the tales informed the illustrations and the illustrations kept the tales in peoples memories. A large reason Walt Disney had such success with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is that it was designed to be a "storybook come to life". One of the failings of the Company as it tries to work with fairy tales now, is that they don't truly aim to give life to beloved tales and then take them to a new and different place. Instead they're now focused on "branding" above all else.

The White Bear by Chris Beatrice

We have such a wonderful variety of illustrators working now and no matter where they are in the world, we're able to see and benefit from their work. Fairy tale collections used to be one of the first places people, usually as children, were introduced to excellent art. While children's books still have a lot of beautiful art today, there's something truly unique and almost magical about what happens when you tell a child a fairy or folk tale in conjunction with showing them a beautiful illustration. More than ever, we live in a visual society where we are bombarded by images from every angle (even our phones are visual these days). Our writing (and I cringe, even as I acknowledge this) is even becoming ever more "visual" with the constant use of texting and emoticon shorthands. As much as we may resist this idea that the representation of language is changing, we must face that it is and not let our precious tales be lost in the flood. It's important we keep them in sight. Art is (largely) timeless and it's no coincidence that as faster and more digital our age gets, the more people look back to the past for stability and understanding. While people are busy searching ancestry.com and picking up Classics (with a capital 'C') in ebook form, it's the images that are sweeping the web. A huge boon of worldwide web sharing is that vintage photos have made a tremendous comeback and it's these that are prompting people to go back and discover the stories of their ancestors and even of complete strangers. When we finally unearth something like a photo of Dickens shaking hands with Dostoevsky (yes, they did meet! but there are no photos that I'm aware of) suddenly the world clicks a little more into place and you begin to understand people's stories and foci at the time. Tale illustrations do the same thing, only they have the ability of their art form to transcend boundaries of time and culture and directly appeal to the heart.

Jack the Giant Killer by Chris Beatrice

So yay! for illustrators like Chris Beatrice, who not only have the skill and talent for making beautiful art, but also for helping keep the stories alive, even as they breathe life into them through new works. All we need is for these wonderful people to try their hand at more tales than just the "classic canon" and for us to help make sure they're seen.

Illustration for the Italian fairy tale Porziella (by Giambattista Basile) by Chris Beatrice

Once again, you can find Chris Beatrice HERE and HERE.