"Goblin Market": An Art Book by Omar Rayyan

One of my favorite artists and illustrators, Omar Rayyan, is working on wrangling his many private art pieces, created in his personal time over the last decade and inspired by Christina Rosetti's 19th century poem Goblin Market, into a truly stunning book.

(You may know his name from the Folio edition of Andrew Lang's The Brown Fairy Book, among others.)

As Rayyan mentions, the narrative poem is rich with imagery, yet it's difficult to find many illustrations based on it. I, for one, don't understand why, but I feel the poem would be better known if we had more visual basis to share it, especially in this digital image-driven age. This book will go a long way to remedying that, and possibly inspire more works that cross the world from our known world to that of Faerie, as Marina Warner describes the "land" in which fairy tales exist (from Once Upon A Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale).

Omar Rayyan:

"This project of doing an illustrated version of "Goblin Market" came about while chatting with a few fellow artists at a dinner. Illustrator Ruth Sanderson planted the idea in my head at a time when I was searching for a personal project to work on outside of my regular commercial work, as a chance to flex my artistic muscles. I used it as an opportunity to explore the imagery found in Rossetti's poem, unfettered by conventional publishing concerns. Free from the vision of an outside party such as an art director, I made this a highly personal project.

The product of many years work, squeezing painting time in between my regular commercial obligations, I slowly amassed a large collection of images. The time finally arrived to assemble these images into a coherent presentation to share with the world. I am very excited to see this project come to fruition."

Rayyan is creating the book independently and has set up a Kickstarter to help make it happen.

Here's his Kickstarter video, which showcases a beautiful variety of pieces, and his multi-faceted approach to the material:

Unsurprisingly, the funding goal was reached on the first day but there's still plenty of time (14 days, ending September 23rd, 2016) to add support and secure a pre-order of the volume (possibly signed and with a print or with other bonuses, depending on the amount you contribute). Considering the price the book, and extras, would cost commercially, it could be considered a limited time offer bargain.

"Over one hundred drawings and watercolor paintings packed into an 88 page full color book. 10x12 inches, hardcover with a printed dust jacket and an introduction written by the one and only Charles Vess."

Rayyan has released Goblin Market pieces via social media here and there through the years, (his Facebook page is a delight to follow and his sense of humor is always evident) but most of these are yet to be viewed by the public. (All artwork in this post was created by Rayyan for Goblin Market.)

I'm really looking forward to seeing the layout and pieces chosen alongside Rosetti's words.

On the left are the sample pages he's currently share. (Look at all the sketchy-goodness and hand written text!)

Like most people, many of the supporter levels are out of my reach, but I'm always interested to see the creative ways in which artists reward their backers. 

I'm particularly tickled by the $10,000 reward. I'm not really sure he's expecting anyone will pay this, but you never know..

THE GOBLIN KING VISITS YOU 

A gift basket of fresh fruit, hand-delivered to your door by Omar himself! You get to spend one-on-one time with the artist, in your very own home. He will also deliver a signed special collector's limited edition of "Goblin Market" with sketch inside, and all sorts of other goodies. Date of delivery to be arranged. 

Tell me you're not a little envious of whomever can splash out $10,000 for goblin fruit!

Congratulations To Our New Fairy Tale Knights: Dame Marina Warner & Dame Carol Ann Duffy

The New Year has recognized TWO female champions of fairy tale research and writing, including poetry by awarding them knighthoods. (Dames are the female Knight equivalent).

   

Among those made Dames for the 2015 New Years Honors:

- Marina Warner, professor of English and creative writing at Birkbeck, University of London, for services to higher education and literary scholarship. 

- Carol Ann Duffy, professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, for services to poetry. (source)

Congratulations to both!

We are so glad your work has become so widely recognized. I know I'm not alone when I say your ongoing work has been personally life changing.

Cheers! *raises goblets & clinks*

The "Re-enchantment" (Hidden Meanings of Fairy Tales) Project DVD Now Available!

(I'm so excited about this!)

A DVD is now available and they will ship to anywhere in the world!*

Rather than try to explain the Re-enchantment project I'll let it speak for itself:

Re-enchantment is an immersive journey into the hidden meanings of fairy tales. Presented as an interactive multi-platform documentary project exploring why fairy stories continue to enchant, entertain, fascinate and horrify contemporary adult audiences.

The Re-enchantment DVD features a series of 10 x 3-minute animated documentaries (interstitials), which explore the themes at work in fairy tales. Each episode offers a rich visual design and presents a new way of thinking about these familiar and much loved stories.

The presentations include beautiful and thought provoking fairy tale illustrations (both classic and new), animations, clips from many different films and interview snippets throughout with some of the most respected fairy tale scholars today (eg Jack Zipes and Marina Warner).

Here is the trailer to give you an overall taste:

 Each episode centers on a common fairy tale theme - Ever After, If The Shoe Fits, Wicked Stepmother, Princess Culture, Into The Woods, Dark Emotions, Beastly Husbands, The Forbidden Room, Fairy Tale Sex and Re-imaginings. (from the Press Release).

 You can order it HERE. Outside Australia, the DVD costs $34.95 and shipping is free. Australian orders are $29.95AU with shipping also free.

And highly recommended (especially while you're waiting for the DVD to arrive) is spending a while exploring "Re-enchantment" online HERE. The site is interactive which is awesome. You can explore whatever aspects or images appeal to you and discover all sorts of goodies. You can also join in the fairy tale community there, take part in discussions of what you've explored on the website, add your thoughts and/or questions, even contribute to an online gallery with your own creations and artistic interpretations (photos, illustrations, collages and more).

There are also art postcards from the project available for purchase.

"Re-enchantment" is also on Facebook where they post snippets and updates.

What are you waiting for? Go!

* I don't know if they are producing 'differently-region-ed' DVDs or if  you would need an all region player to view it on but I'm guessing if the DVD is only compatible with the Australian region,  you should still be able to view it on any computer that has a DVD drive.