I’ve started a new line of art prints based on fairy tales and myths. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time – in fact, there are certain scenes and images from fairy tales that I’ve been attempting to illustrate on and off for the past ten years.
I don’t know why fairy tale imagery sticks in my head so much. I’m fascinated by the fact that cultures all around the world have come up with very similar stories and themes. In fact, the tale of Cinderella has over 300 variants around the world, from places as far away as China. The central themes of fairy tales are too consistent and too pervasive to be attributed solely to cultural exchange. It seems that the essentials of these stories form some structural part of the human psyche.
Personally, I’m fascinated by the psychological interpretation of fairy tales, such as Marina Warner’s From the Beast to the Blonde, and by up-to-date retellings by writers like Angela Carter and Tanith Lee.
Here are a few of the pieces I’ve been working on in the past week:
RED RIDING HOOD
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“The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Little Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.”
ONE HUNDRED YEARS
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“But scarcely had she touched it, before the fairy’s prophecy was fulfilled; the spindle wounded her, and she fell down lifeless on the ground.”
STRAW INTO GOLD
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“And when the girl was brought to him he took her into a room which was quite full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel, and said, “Now set to work, and if by to-morrow morning early you have not spun this straw into gold during the night, you must die.” Thereupon he himself locked up the room, and left her in it alone. So there sat the poor miller’s daughter, and for her life could not tell what to do; she had no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew more and more miserable, until at last she began to weep.”
