Warriors In Gowns and Other Plot Twists by Gina Pfleegor

Gina Pfleegor
"Plot Twist" (oil paint on panel)

 Gina Pfleegor is a "pop-surrealist" artist we've recently discovered, thanks to Beautiful Bizarre Magazine's RAYMAR Traditional Art Award contest, 2021, in which the delightful painting above was chosen as a finalist. 

We adore the title: "Plot Twist", which is the perfect introduction to the series this painting belongs to. 

While not focused completely on fairy tales, it's both fitting and not surprising to find fairy tales referenced; specifically, The Frog King, Beauty and the Beast, and Rapunzel but also alluding to Fairy (Tale) Land in general. The series endeavors to reconsider femininity and heroism (or heroine-ism); exploring the struggle between defining strength (for women especially, but the struggle isn't limited to those who identify as "she/her") and just what being female - or how to incorporate a sense of femininity in one's life, means.

“In this series of paintings, I found myself drawn to a subject I know well; that balance of feeling strong yet feminine as a woman in our society today. Attempting to depict a sense of authenticity regarding what this can often feel like, I used symbolism to show that we can be both without sacrificing the other. Sensual can be strong, determined can be vulnerable, and sometimes warriors wear gowns into battle.”

Gina Pfleegor (Artist statement on the series via West End Gallery)

Redefining the narrative is what this series is all about and that becomes very clear when you learn the titles for each of the pieces. We found musing on the paintings in conjunction with their titles so fun we thought we'd share our personal commentary. Please note, the artist hasn't commented much on her intent for each piece so every viewer is free to see what they wish... ;)

"Plot Twist" gives us a sinister but refreshing and cathartic ending to The Frog King (more popularly known as The Frog Prince). The lily pad wallpaper, with its sperm-like design seeking to devour its fellow "lily pads" shows the futility of doing so against this princess. One eyebrow is raised in challenge to the viewer, while the little crown is left on the plate for her to consume, take or leave as she chooses. 

"Plot Twist"

"And She Lived Happily Ever After" focuses on a very satisfied looking Beauty (or Belle, since the yellow dress, and jowls above are both a Disney callback), with the Beast almost out of frame, behind her, no longer an obstacle but a trophy, even as her own story continues (with a lot more to come, judging by how big that book is!). 

"And She Lived Happily Ever After"

"Slay" portrays a Rapunzel with lopped-off hair, (we like to think she did it herself with that sword!), looking post-battle sweaty, sunbeams shining down triumphantly as she sits, sword remaining at the ready, a dead dragon relegated to her background. The dragon might be closer to her than the tower she was once trapped in, but it's still left well behind as she looks to her future from her (literal) rock-solid base. 

"Slay"

The tea-drinker, ear cocked toward the flying bluebird is titled "Do Tell" and, while not obviously referencing a particular fairy tale, clearly bears the marks of one. (Snow White came to mind immediately with the combination of domestic and "ladylike" motifs being disrupted as well as her obvious affinity to nature but she could easily represent quite a range of fairy tale heroines.) Birds in fairy tales are not only linked to the soul but are agents of transformation, and bringers of knowledge. The savvy princess, also in blue like the bird - a color strangely rare in fairy tales - even as she drinks tea, pinky finger held just-so as per the rules of polite society, she has her ear attuned for secrets and knowledge. Whether via gossip or riddling out tidbits of information from strange sources, the blue hints at the supernatural; a connection to nature and knowledge beyond the norm, (and, we like to believe, a sign of potential happiness), while the orange-gold not only suggests class but that underneath lies a resistance to rules, perhaps even a rebel on the rise. Curiosity, the thirst for knowledge, is both women's hallmark of agency and, traditionally, the "vice" warned against for leading her to female downfall. The bird and woman sharing blue speaks of trust, and a bond that works together against opposing forces, while the orange marks them as rebellious collaborators. There's a lot suggested in this piece but clearly, the woman is poised for something new - be it knowledge or action. No passive princess here.

"Do Tell"

We wanted to include another piece that not only has a clear connection to the land of the Fairy Tale but holds an additional clue to its potency that the average viewer might easily overlook. The title for the piece is "Charmed", and it appears the queen here has charmed the serpent, instead of it being the other, traditional, way around. Behind her head, though, the sun holds another clue: the Latin words "amor et melle et felle est fecundissimus" meaning "love is rich, with both honey and venom*". This is not a girl to underestimate or a woman to be ruled over by another. She is just as potent as the creature she holds gently around her neck and in her hands and meets the viewer's gaze shrewdly and confidently. She is the fairy tale heroine with agency, with personality and if her nemesis - or partner - is given a name, you can be sure she will have one too.

"Charmed"

Just like the direct gaze of these female characters challenges the viewer to reconsider their first glance at these pieces, the narratives implied by the symbolism used in each, ask that you redefine and rewrite the assumptions - something very central to women's issues, as well as issues of narrative, today.

You can see the rest of this series by Pfleegor HERE and stay up to date with her projects and appearances through her blog on Facebook HERE. To finish we found an earlier fairy tale-themed piece, from 2018, titled "The Sorrow Of The Snow Queen" that we insta-loved. While it doesn't really fit into the spirit of the current 2021 series it also says a lot more than what you see at first glance. Instead of telling you what we see this time, though, we'll let you think about what it says to you.

"The Sorrow Of The Snow Queen"

*To be accurate the full quote, by Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus is:

amor et melle et felle est fecundissimus;

gustui dat dulce, amarum ad satietatem usque oggerit.

Which translates as:

“Love exceedingly abounds both in honey and in gall: it yields sweetness even in a taste, and produces bitterness to sufficiency”.

"Alice In Lockdown" Reflects How Maddening the Pandemic Has Been To Date

All images in this post are by Marta Zubieta ©2020

"Equating the dream logic of Lewis Carroll with the lived political reality of Covid19. Alice in Lockdown is a self-directed illustration project where Zubieta explores the confusion and self-transformation journey we have gone through since the beginning of Lockdown. Bringing vibrant colour to often bleak subjects, Zubieta explores the millennial culture and its issues through pink-tinted glasses, neon colours, and dreamy characters. Zubieta found in Alice the perfect metaphor to explore the reality she was living in during the outburst of Covid 19." (Summary from martazubieta.com)

Marta Zubieta's quarantine-created "Alice In Lockdown" series has been getting a lot of attention on social media and it's easy to see why. The "logical nonsense" world of Alice In Wonderland speaks perfectly to the surreal challenges we've all been faced with since going into lockdown.

What isn't as well known is how this Spanish artist (based in Bristol, UK) came to create her paintings. It's a little more than "artist expresses feelings visually when stuck at home"... Here are two excerpts from Zubieta's first blog post as her new series was developing in May 2020:

First piece: Alice in Lockdown: Alice trapped in the new reality, in this piece I combine pop culture symbols and pastel colours to express the feeling of fake comfort in our houses while we are being hyper controlled.

The idea started at the beginning of the lockdown when some art contests where happening working with the concept of self-isolation and staying at home. I imagined myself trapped in my house forever and I envisioned Alice when she grew really big and got trapped in the Wonderland house.

My social commentaries about how coronavirus was being handed in England weren’t very welcome on Facebook so I thought I would put this social commentaries in pictures. The result was even better than expected, people who would normally criticise conspiracy theories were very impressed with the artwork even if when looking close you can find symbols of conspiracy theories.

 

...Second piece: Down the Rabbit Hole: Alice going through the rabbit hole of our digital world, a hyperreal maze of content that tell us what to believe, what to do, what to buy, and how to entertain ourselves, does that rabbit hole ever reach an end?

With this piece I want people to question themselves about their everyday interaction with the digital media and how it influences the way the think or act. I want to talk to everyone but I am sure it will resonate with my generation the most.

Zubieta's next post speaks about how she wanted to express the warped reality we all suddenly found ourselves in, and her thoughts on how to go about it so it would be heard.
From her second progress post:

Following my research of storytelling and the hero’s journey from last year, and my previous essay about hyperreality and its relation with social media, I wanted to get a broader knowledge on archetypes and the power of these in combination with pop culture for communicating ideas, as a global visual communication that goes beyond language, location or race.

What is the purpose? I want to create art that tells the other side of the coin, In a period where lot the artwork is being created to make us feel uplifted and hopeful, I want to create artwork that empathise with the feelings of impotency, loneliness, connection addiction, and misunderstanding of the uncertain situation we live in. (Ed.: All emphasis in bold is by OUABlog.)

 

She goes on to explain that by using a very familiar character and archetype, she can more immediately express well-known elements and it was Alice in Wonderland that resonated with her experience in quarantine, straight away (for example, Alice growing so large she can't fit inside the house anymore). As a result, she can immediately refocus the lens, twisting the images to express well-known aspects of the story in a different way and encourage people to consider things from this perspective. In a very real sense, it's a short-hand that allows for very direct communication with whoever sees the art.

It's clear in part this is because the rules - which society needs to live by for a stability - become distorted and topsy-turvy. What's less obvious to the viewer (or reader of Alice) is that by beginning from an illogical place but still attempting to proceed logically, is quite literally maddening. The more we apply logic, the less it makes sense, which is the opposite of what should happen. As a result, reality becomes even more distorted than it would have if the absurdity was thrown into the middle of something normal; something that wasn't already twisted. The madness of a situation - in our case, a pandemic in the middle of political upheaval - tends to creep up on Alice (us), until we realize that we've been trying to make sense of something nonsensical for a long time, only to find ourselves suddenly overwhelmed and exhausted, not knowing what to do or how to keep coping. It's a very real challenge.

Zubieta writes: 

Going down the rabbit hole in the book is a representation of going to the unconscious, connected with lockdown, the covid-19 seems to be the hole that has trapped us all at home, making us having to deal with our inner monsters but also with the voice we listen the most: the media.

Inner Jungles: How do we make sense of the outer world in our intimate spaces? (@wordincanvas)

Zubieta also connected with James Tuson (@wordincanvas), a writer who creates poems and spoken performance pieces based on other visual artist's work, and asked that he add his words to her images. (We adore artists collaborating!) Here's an excerpt of one of the results:

Alice in Lockdown

Have we gone mad?

Down the habit hole

...At least the hedgehogs can now roll free through our empty parks

Why sometimes I’ve disbelieved as many as six explanations to all this before breakfast

Getting curisor and curisor as the days drag on

Curious little oysters aren’t we whilst its’ all convenient for us in our shells.

Hell I even find myself talking to the flowers...

You can read Tuson's whole poem at the bottom of Zubieta's post HERE. We've included another excerpt by Tuson with a different thought process, a vignette, created in response to the Tea Party scene below.

The Mad Hatters Invitation the official Tea Party, by James Tuson, @Wordincanvas (excerpt)

The Mad Hatter inconveniently invites you to attend the corona party, come come all we must commence with this befuddlement and such it’ll be very very rude indeed if you don’t fall in line and keep your distance at our signs. We’ve gone to great many lengths to make this as straightforward for you as possible. Improbable you say? Do you have any idea why a raven is like a virus? Unkindness! Now now let’s not dampen spirits you’ve only just arrived, you must, you must have a cup of tea and have a go on our sweet sweet 5G, it’s truly the best in all of silly gits end. Am I making sense? (Continue reading HERE.)

Being fascinated with how people connect and use fairy tales for expression, reflection, and to consider changing social narratives, we also wanted to include this fascinating mind-map (below - click to enlarge) of the development process that Zubieta included on her blog. There is no commentary attached to the image but it's easy to see how the idea grew, marrying the resonant story to fairy tales and fairy tale characters and archetypes. (You can spot references to Peter Pan in there, along with Chihiro from Spirited Away.) It's clear that what wasn't palatable for people to see discussed (as she mentions, on Facebook) was a lot easier to consider and reflect on, by using the vehicle of fairy tales, fairy tale imagery and a reframed familiar story for people to think about on their own terms. 

It's an excellent study in the use of fairy tale relevancy and why revisions of beloved tales can be more communicative than regular forms of communication. In a world where it's harder and harder to trust words being spoken by authorities and the media, and many people are polarized, minds closed and defense mechanisms operating on a hair-trigger, sometimes it takes the reframing of a familiar fairy tale to bypass barriers and speak to the shared experience we are having. 

That's powerful stuff.

Going down the rabbit hole, in the book, is a representation of going into the unconscious. (When) connected with lockdown, Covid-19 seems to be the hole that has trapped us all at home, forcing us to deal with our inner monsters but also with the voice we listen to the most; the mass media. (Zubieta)

You can support Marta Zubieta and find her work online in the following places:

Main website: martazubieta.com

Instagram: @onirical_zubieta

Etsy: OniricalZubieta

Twitter: Marta Zubieta @oniricalZubieta

Facebook: @martazubieta

Homemade Fairy Tales in Quarantine

Little Red Riding Hood by Gustav Dore (color), recreated by Katrin La aka @0815utzi

Folks are getting very creative while in quarantine and finding wonderful ways of keeping their lives magical, and the creativity isn't restricted to artists. One trend that keeps appearing is people recreating famous paintings with whatever they have around the house. This has made for some hilarious pictures (especially those reflecting the pandemic symbols of toilet paper, hand sanitizer and more).

We were more than a little thrilled to find a handful of fairy tale pieces (along with more "fairy tale adjacent" pieces, especially those of the pre-raphaelite sensibility) and thought our readers might enjoy taking a peek - and perhaps get inspired to create your own homemade fairy tale.

Midsummer Eve by Edward Robert Hughes recreated by Mona Longueville aka @lechasfaitronron

The Instagram account, @tussenkunstenquarantaine (not a typo) has been collecting submissions to help spread joy through the web, and is encouraging folks to get involved.

Here are the guidelines:

Tussen Kunst & Quarantaine

For everyone at home who needs some relief. Some homemade art 👩🏼‍🎨
1. Pic your artwork
2. Use 3 items in your home
3. Share @tussenkunstenquarantaine

Although people seem to stretch beyond the "3 items" guidelines, from time to time, it's a pretty fun challenge that good for stretching your brain and engaging your sense of humor, and of course, we'd love to see some more classic fairy tale paintings and illustrations recreated!

Ophelia by John Everett Millais recreated by Astrid Hulsmann aka @astrid_hulsmann

If you post on Instagram please feel free to tag @tussenkunstenquarantaine, our Editor's account @inkgypsy and also the online fairy tale profs of The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic @carterhaugh.school. Everyone is friendly, supportive and we are all delighting in each mote of magic that comes our way right now. And there's a good chance we'll share it in our feeds.

Enjoy the art and #staysafeathome! (It is still SO weird to type those words and realize they remain relevant the globe over.. hang in there folks!)

The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse - "trash version" by @brettmanningart (her words!)
Note: Brett has recently recreated a number of Pre-raphaelite scenes -they're all wonderful and worth checking out HERE

#FolktaleWeek2019 Starts November 4th & You Are All Invited!

Promotional art for sharing for #FolktaleWeek2019 by @carolinebonnemuller

Did you know there is now a yearly #FolktaleWeek happening on social media? (Instagram, Twitter and Facebook)

Originally created by a group of talented artists and children's book illustrators from all around the world, #FolktaleWeek has now expanded to include folks of all kinds, both amateur and pro, and people are encouraged to submit any form of creative work on the theme they wish. Last year they had writers, illustrators, painters, textile artists, embroiderists (!), photographers, papercrafters, cosplayers and more. They're hoping to see even more variety, from even more people this year.

Please note: in this post we have included just a few (truly!) of a huge variety of lovely pieces by folks declaring their commitment to being involved. Most of these here are by pros, but if you're not a professional artist or illustrator, don't let that stop you! (Have a look at the hashtag on Instagram HERE for a look at the HUGE variety of styles and contributions - there are so very many already, and of all levels and styles.) If the idea has you intrigued, you probably have something to contribute! There are many forms of response to the prompts and every expression is personal and unique and appreciated. It's a wonderful challenge and you might just surprise yourself...

Here's the info for this year and the directions to follow:

As temperatures start to drop and leaves start to change, it can only mean one thing: #folktaleweek is coming. This year, we’re releasing the prompts even earlier, so you’ll have plenty of time to discover folktales, work on art, or even write your own tales. And to help you get off to a good start, our friends at @illostories are dedicating their October workbook to Folktale Week!* 

by @carolinebonnemuller

Are you in? Let us know by reposting this image or making your own! 

How it works:We’ll release the prompts on Oct 7th. Then on Nov 4th, follow the prompts and share a piece of art each day. Interpret the prompts however you like. Everyone is encouraged to join in the fun. 

Use the hashtags #folktaleweek and #folktaleweek2019 to show your work and interact with other artists. The challenge hosts will pull work from the hashtags to share in our stories! 

*To get the FolkTale Week prep workbook released on Oct 6th, artists *You can join IlloStories via the link on their profile. Membership is open to artists who answer a few short questions. Doors will open to the IlloStories FaceBook group on Sept 30th and will close on Oct 13th. This is not a paid endorsement. We’re just buddies who support each other. 

Folktale Week 2019 was developed by a group of talented artists from all around the world. 

* * * * * * * 

Although this was a ridiculously difficult task, we chose a small selection from the many (many!) available, to show you the range of styles and approaches. We're didn't even get to see them all and didn't have room for all our 'favorites' but hopefully, you get the idea that anything-you-feel-like-creating goes! Click on any image to see it much bigger. Each artist's Instagram handle is below the corresponding row so you can see more of their work and follow them if you'd like. (Apologies for any odd formatting - there are a lot of pictures for Blogger to handle!)

We hope these inspire you!

@clara.phil / @sich2.1 / @irenesilvinodesign

@meg.vermaak / @debrastyer / @trudi_murray

If you're a writer, artist, doodler, comic-creator, multimedia artist, sculptor, animator, filmmaker, crafter, poet, puppet-maker, printmaker... heck, anyone who is inspired to respond in any manner on the subject of folktales and that days' prompt, take a chance, jump in and join the fun!

They are a really supportive bunch of people who love fairy tales and folktales, just like you do. You'll be in great company.

@mustudiomagic / @vonderstang_e / @sofiamoore_studio

@lunartcy / @laurairrgang / @paululadesign

@elizabethsparg / @yaga_blackhouse / @suwin.chan

@kudjakam / @hannahjdyson  / @creativebrenda

@desertcritters / @chelsealearnstodraw / @sara_netherway_illustration

@sandrabowersart/ @cinderellasews / @junulabean

@maxineleemackie / @nadjasarell / @ul_zak

@jinjermarkley / @melissagardenerart / @theuglymugwort

@caroleemcmullin / @illostories / @kimberlyjthorstenson

@spikedeane_art / @neelydaggett / @alena_selenina

@khabibova_alevtina / @light_drops  / @artbyemilyskinner

 @jessica.flores.design  / @jumbradshaw  / @samrudddesign

@kaizendoodles  / @annna_oparina  / @robotswebe2

Already so many styles, tales and approaches!
Make sure you go to Instagram HERE to see many (MANY!) more.
We are very much looking forward to seeing all the fairy tale creations during #FolktaleWeek2019!

by @kathryndurst