Day 11 - Hansel and Gretel

The other night, I decided - because why not - that instead of a traditional canvas, I should complete one of my paintings on a a license plate.

See how it says 1873?  That will be important in a second.

I cleaned it, applied some clear gesso, and decided to take advantage of the panoramic dimensions to create Hansel and Gretel in the woods.

Painting trees on a license plate is NBD.  Painting children, on the other hand, was a surprisingly BD.  Don't try this at home unless you have lots of time to negotiate raised shapes.

I decided to dress Hansel and Gretel in clothing from 1873, because the license plate told me to.  I think the fancy fancy emphasizes how very out of place they are, and how ill-prepared for what lies ahead.

To finish out the composition, I added a bird, eating Hansel's crumbs.

I call this "Hansel and Gretel; or, License to Survive," because that's what they do.  They face abandonment, betrayal, fear, and a CANNIBAL (for the love of Pete), and still, they survive.  So can you.  So can we all.

As ever, this is available in my shop.

Day 10 - Rapunzel

I tried another watercolor ATC, and it failed, so then I tried a third, and it succeeded. YAY.

Here's Rapunzel, midway through having her hair chopped off by the witch:

Day 9 - Gretel Born of Fire

I am always too scared to play with watercolors, but this is a challenge, so why not be scared?!

That's "Gretel, Born of Fire," which is of course from Hansel and Gretel, but by way of one of my favorite poems, "Gretel in Darkness," by Louise Gluck.  Here's an excerpt:

"No one remembers.  Even you, my brother,
summer afternoons you look at me as though
you meant to leave,
as though it never happened.
But I killed for you.  I see armed firs,
the spires of that gleaming kiln -

Nights I turn to you to hold me
but you are not there.
Am I alone? Spies
hiss in the stillness, Hansel,
we are there still and it is real, real,
that black forest and the fire in earnest."

Day 8 - Red Goat

It took me an unbelievable amount of time to paint my Day 7 canvas.

Like, maybe that shit paints itself in the place where you come from, but in my house, I needed all of the hours allotted to me plus a few that rightfully belonged to my next door neighbor, as a result of which, I had to keep it simple on Day 8, if only for my own sanity.

Perhaps you have noticed (as a worldly individual) that in fairy tales, there are often feats that must be accomplished, usually in sets of three.  A fine Romanian gent named Fat Frumos, as one example, must bring the King the milk of a red goat.

And thus, RED GOAT!

This, as ever, is in my shop.

Day 7 - The Queen Fights Her Future Husband

I've read a lot of weird-ass fairy tales in the past week, but I've also found shining treasures buried deep inside the earth.  My absolute favorite by miles is "How Geirald the Coward Was Punished," which I will now summarize, because the Wikipedia summary sucks raw eggs through a straw.

Rosald, our hero, is the eldest son born to a poor knight.  As a teenager, Rosald meets Geirald, who is the same age, but who has the better fortune of being born into wealth.  Geirald longs to travel the world, but he needs a traveling companion, so he says that he will pay Rosald's way if Rosald will give all credit and glory for any accomplishments to Geirald.  Rosald agrees, and his parents give their blessing.

Along their travels, they first encounter a band of 12 robbers who refer to each other with color names - Blue, Red, Green.  Reservoir Dogs, anyone?  Geirald wants to flee, but Rosald comes up with a plan to go to higher ground and roll rocks down onto the robbers' heads.  The robbers are defeated, and Rosald gives the credit to Geirald, along with a ring from one of the robber's hands.  Geirald wears the ring everywhere they go, much to the admiration of everyone who sees it.

As the fame of this accomplishment spreads - two men defeating twelve dastardly robbers! - Geirald and Rosald appeal to a nearby king to stay the winter in his keep.  The king agrees, provided that they slay a pesky giant in his kingdom who has killed 50 knights.  After commissioning a special weapon for the purpose, Rosald single-handedly kills the giant, cutting off its head as proof.  Keeping his promise, he gives the head to Geirald to present to the king.

Word of these heroics spreads to the unmarried queen of a neighboring kingdom, whose subjects keep insisting that she take a husband.  She comes to a feast at the king's keep and asks if Geirald will fight one of her pages to demonstrate his skills.  The king approves, but Geirald becomes convinced that the "page" is going to be a valorous knight who will kill him.  As Geirald makes preparations to flee in the night, Rosald convinces him to stay by saying that Rosald will switch clothes with Geirald, fight the page, and give Geirald all the glory.  Geirald agrees.

When the time for the battle arrives- and this is the part that makes me want to jump up and down as if the whole world were my trampoline - it is not a page who appears to battle Rosald-in-Geirald's clothing, but neither is it a knight.  It is the Queen herself, disguised as her page.  The battle is mighty, but Rosald eventually prevails, and afterwards, he slips away to give his clothes back to Geirald. Pressed for time, however, he forgets to give Geirald back the ring stolen from the robbers.

Geirald appears before the king to receive his accolades in the torn and soiled clothes of battle, and as his prize, he asks for the hand of the Queen in marriage.  The Queen, who has just slipped back into the stands, thinks that while the clothes are the same, the man looks slightly different from the one she just fought.  When she also notices that he is not wearing the ring, she withholds her consent, asking that Rosald and Geirald fight each other.  Rosald throws the fight, but the Queen sees through that and asks for one last challenge, in which Rosald and Geirald both fight two knights of the queen's choosing.

Rosald cannot save Geirald from this final test, nor indeed can Geirald save himself.  Instead of appearing on the field at the appointed time, he hides under his bed.  The Queen calls off the fight and marries Rosald, impressed not only by his courage and his skill in battle, but also by his willingness to keep his promise, even at the cost of her love.

HOW GREAT IS THAT?!

Here is The Queen, Battling Her Future Husband.

This is, as always, available in my shop.

Day 6 - Silently Sweeping

When I selected my fairy tale theme for this challenge, I ordered lots of books from the library, including Grimms' Bad Girls & Bold Boys: The Moral & Social Vision of the Tales, by Ruth Bottigheimer.  I pounced on that one as soon as it arrived, and in the chapter on Cinderella, I learned something both fascinating and sad.  There were three editions of the Grimms' fairy tales, the first put out in 1812, the second in 1819, and the third in 1857.  Over that time period, Cinderella's lines of "direct speech" were repeatedly reduced.  As Bottigheimer says, "Cinderella explains, conjectures, conjures, questions, assumes, and lies in her fourteen speaking appearances in the 1812 edition. . . . The 1857 version presents a far different picture" of a Cinderella without much of a voice.  This, of course, is the Cinderella most of us know.

I thought a lot about how to create a visual representation of silence and silencing.  I could have sewn her lips together, put a piece of cloth over her mouth, or given her no lips at all.  In the end, I decided not to mutilate Cinderella, but to illustrate the silence through empty space.  The lines left to her are lines of dirt between the floorboards, which she is charged with sweeping away.  The expression on her face tells us (I hope) how she feels about this.

This is available in my shop.

Day 5 - Bluebeard and His Last Wife

I have always been morbidly fascinated by Bluebeard because of all the bloody bits, but I don't think anyone wants to hang a painting of bloody bits, so I went for a futuristic hipster wedding portrait thing, because fun.

That is all.