Endicott Redux

Get out the vote

I know we're all in a voting mood these days, so here's a chance to vote for one our (and we hope yours!) favorite new authors, Christopher Barzak. Chris wrote to us to let us know that he and his award-winning novel, One for Sorrow, have been nominated for MTV Network's NewNowNext "Brink of Fame: Author" award. How cool is that? Here's what Chris said about the voting procedure:

"One for Sorrow, has recently been nominated for a NewNowNext Award, sponsored by MTV Networks LOGO channel, which focuses on bringing GLBT friendly programming to television.  I've been nominated for "Brink of Fame: Author" and it's an award that anyone can vote on just by clicking over to their site, marking my book as the one you want to win, scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking the vote button.  There are a variety of other categories to vote for, and you can do that as well, but if you only care to vote for my category, that'd be most welcome."

Best of Luck of Chris! The awards will be broadcasted Saturday, June 7th at 9pm on MTV's Logo Channel.

Bunnies on the auction block!

I've just sent this painting off to the framers for an exhibition and auction at Monks Withecombe Gallery in Devon at the end of this month. All the works in the show (including these little sleepy fellows) have been donated to raise money to preserve the beautiful Commons in the Devon village where I live. There will be work by many other local artists as well, including Brian Froud, Alan Lee, Marja Kee Kruyt, Katherine Lightfoot, Chris Chapman, Susan Derges, and Stephen Dooley. If you're in the southwest of England and would like to attend the auction, contact the gallery for  dates, times, and other information.

The painting is called "Nap Time on Chagford Commons," 20 x 12 inches (unframed), oil paints and pencil on canvas paper. It's based on a similar image I painted last year which was damaged by a printing company. This exhibition gave me the excuse to re-create it, and all for a good cause.

Interstitial Arts Foundation Auction

'Tis the season to auction! If you've a flair for it, stop by the spectacular Interstitial Arts Foundation Auction, which is currently auctioning beautiful handmade jewelry based on short stories from the Foundation's first anthology, Interfictions, such as the lovely piece above created by Sarah Evans from Matthew Cheney's story "A Map of the Everywhere." The auction opened today, with new pieces being added every couple of days. Each auction will run about four to seven days and all proceeds will go to the production of a second anthology. (The auction should run about three weeks.) For more information, stop by the Interstitial Arts Foundation Auction website.

And don't forget -- Duirwaigh Gallery is also under full auction sale with 549 items at eBay! And wow -- there's something for almost every budget. Here's one of Wendy Froud's fairy dolls which you can find here.

 

Duirwaigh Gallery: Moving Sale Extravaganza

Angi Sullins of Duirwaigh Gallery is having a huge (over 300 items!) moving sale on Ebay from May 1st through the 14th. Here's a chance to purchase some really terrific pieces of art from well known fantasy artists. Here's the description of the sale: " A treasure box of items will appear for auction here on Monday May 1st to help Duirwaigh find homes for many of its art-children! To make their cross-country move easier, lots of limited edition signed prints, original paintings, unique drawings, one-of-a-kind sculptures, animation cels, collectibles and fun things will be up for auction May 1st - May 15th. Items from Wendy and Brian Froud, David Delamare, Kinuko Craft, Linda Ravenscroft, Amy Brown, Ian Daniels, and Nene Thomas will be featured in the sale."

For more information, stop by Angi's blog for photos and news updates about the sale.

Blue

Blue is a new exhibition at The Textile Museum in Washington, DC that explores the creation and meaning of the color blue on textiles ranging from Greco-Roman and pre-Columbian tunic fragments to installations by five artists who are currently using indigo dyes in Japan, South America, and the US.

Indigo has long been seen as mythical and magical, with many cultures attributing talismanic properties and health benefits to the dye. To make the indigo dye, "plants are cut shortly before blossoming and placed in a container with water. Enzymes and bacteria in the plants break down the indican, indigo's precursor, into a nearly colorless indoxyl and sugars. This fermentation continues for at least 12 hours. After removing the plant material, the remaining indoxyl must be oxidized by vigorous beating with sticks or hands and feet. This precipitates an insoluble indogo which may be dried and formed into cakes for future use or trade. When needed, the cake is joined with an alkaline substance such as dates or wine in a vat with water. Fibers removed from the vat are yellow, but immediately become blue when oxidized by the air. Seemingly worked by magic, this alchemy introduced indigo dyeing to local superstition, myth, and ritual."

Contemporary artists include Hiroyuki Shindo, a Japanese artist working near Kyoto who has developed innovative patterning techniques, Shihoko Fukumoto, one of Japan's foremost artists working in indigo, and Rowland Ricketts, an American-born artist who spent many years in Japan's Tokushima area and has worked on a indigo farm and apprenticed to a master indigo dyer. Also included are Maria Eugenia Davila and Eduardo Portillo, who are now raising silkworms in Venezuela and spearheading techniques of weaving with locally produced fibers and coloring with the region's natural dyes.

The exhibit runs through September 18, 2008. For more information on indigo, see Terri Windling's post from last year (when the exhibition appeared in England). The image above is a detail from a long cloth from Indonesia, Yogyakarta (in the style of Ceribon) from the 20th century.

Celebrate Shakespeare's Birthday

      

Were you looking for a way to celebrate Shakespeare's 444 birthday? Why not celebrate at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC? On April 27, from noon to 4 pm, there will be jugglers, jesters, music, song, and dance. Also, you can perform your favorite lines of Shakespeare (what ARE your favorite lines of Shakespeare?) on the Folger stage, or take part in treasure hunts of the Folger's reading rooms on the only day of the entire year that they're open to the public.  What fun! Click here for all the info.

And if you wanted to do a little light reading on Shakespeare to prepare for the party, why not try Bill Bryson's Shakespeare: The World as Stage? The book is devoted to what we DON'T know about Shakespeare, and it's full of amusing anecdotes -- such as that he never spells his name the same way twice in the signatures of his that survive -- Willm Shaksp, William Shakespe, Wm Shakspe, William Shakspere, Willm Shakspere, and William Shakspeare.  Oh, how my inner proofreader cringes!

**The art above is by an unknown artist. It's oil on panel, late 1600s to early 1700s.

Catching up....

"April 1st: This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four." — Mark Twain

      

First of all, our apologies for the erratic nature of this blog recently. Midori had to take time off from Endicott & JoMA over the last couple of months while she's back in the Midwest selling her old house, and I've been coping with health problems this winter, making my own work schedule unpredictable. Midori will be back to the Endicott office in Tucson soon, and then, between us, we should be able to return to a more regular schedule. (Many thanks to the other Endicott reviewers, who have been pitching in when they can.)

Here are some things to catch up on, a combination of recommendations sent to us and items that recently caught my eye:

* Our Monday Video this week (okay, it's Tuesday, nevermind) is "Achilles on Skyros Island," a short film about the mythological imagery on ancient Greek pottery (above). It was recommended by mythic artist and musician Catherine Crowe, whose beautiful work can be viewed over on Imago Corvi.

* The New Yorker Magazine recently published a fascinating article by Jill Lepore discussing fake memoirs, factual novels, and "the history of history" vrs. the history of the novel. ("Just the Facts, Ma'am" in the March 24th issue. You can read it online here.) "Historians and novelists are kin," writes Lepore, "but they’re more like brothers who throw food at each other than like sisters who borrow each other’s clothes."

* If you live in southwest England, there's an event here in Devon on Saturday night that promises to be terrific: "Stones and Spirit: An Evening of Music and a Visual Journey across the Steppes." Katy Marchant and Steve Tyler (from the fabulous Daughters of Elvin) will be performing Traditional and Early Music, and archaeologist Dr. Kenneth Lymer will give a talk on rock art discoveries in Kazakhstan. "During this talk we will take you on a journey through the steppes and mountains of Kazakhstan," they say, "not only in the exploration of ancient rock art images, but also to provide a poignant introduction to this fascinating land and its peoples." Where: Endecott House, Chagford, Devon. When: 7:30 pm, April 5. Tickets are £5. For more information: info@daughtersofelvin.co.uk.

* When I wrote about the Russian painter Viktor Vasnetsov in the March 19th post below, I didn't even realize that an exhibition of turn-of-the-century Russian art is currently running at the Royal Academy in London, featuring a large selection of paintings from the "Wanderers" (a.k.a. "Itinerants") movement. More information is here.

* Over at the Green Man Review site, they're honoring Peter Beagle (author of such fantasy classics as The Last Unicorn and A Fine and Private Place) with the "Oak King" distinction this year. The site will be offering four podcasts of Peter reading his work, one reading per season. The spring podcast--of a brand new story, "The Stickball Witch"--is online now.

* Here's a bit of interesting, and maddening, history: A rejection letter from the Disney Studios to a young woman who applied for a position at Disney's animation training school in 1938: "Women," they told her, "do not do any of the creative work in preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason girls are not considered for the training school." The young woman in question eventually became an animator during World War II, working for the war effort.

* JoMA reader El Edwards has tipped us off to this little movie trailer, Wise Women Speak, from Cowgirl Films. Boy does it make me want to see more.

* Salon has an insightful article by Laura Miller on David Hajdu's new book,  The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America. Interesting stuff.

* I've only recently become aware of the pudú, the world's smallest deer, and I'm utterly smitten by these magical little creatures, which are native to Argentina and Chile. You can find pictures, and the video of a pudú adoption, on the Fauna Andina website.

My recent infatuation with the pudú has led, in turn, to the webcomic Little Dee by Christopher Baldwin, in which a pudú is a recurring character. It's a charming comic about a little girl lost in the woods and befriended by animals. You'll find it online here. Or you can purchase print versions of Little Dee here.

* For those of you in the New York area: Howard Gayton and I will be doing a reading in New York on the evening of June 18, as part of the KGB Fantastic Fiction series. That's at the KGB Bar in the East Village (85 East 4th Street, just off 2nd Avenue), at 7 pm. We'll post about this again closer to the date, but I wanted to give you an early "heads up,"  as it would be nice to see some Journal of Mythic Arts readers there....And though it's April Fool's Day, I promise this isn't an April Fool's joke -- despite evidence to the contrary in the picture here! (It comes from a gig that Howard did as a Fool for Daughters of Elvin, as a matter of fact, just to tie some of these posts together.) The April reading at KGB, by the way, will be by P.D. Cacek and Jack Ketchum, on April 16 at 7 pm.

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone.

Lori Field in NYC

 

I'm deeply envious of all of you in the New York area right now, because you can go to Lori Field's new exhibition and I'm going to miss it! Damn.

Lori is an absolutely amazing collage artist who lives and works in Montclair, New Jersey. Her new show is on display until April 26th at the Kinz, Tillou and Feigen Gallery at 529 W. 20th Street in Manhattan, running alongside an exhibition of drawings (the "Rappaccini's Daughter" series) by Megan Greene. "Both artists," the curators note, "share an affinity for incorporating imagined and enigmatic subject matter in their fantastical work.

"Lori Field's encaustic paintings with collaged drawings portray hallucinatory visions derived from her flirtation with demonic realms, personal fairy tales, and the human world. The chimerical creatures that populate Field's mixed media works are at once familiar and mysterious. They are the realization of modern day myths that draw on a primitive lore. Her fanciful visual and cultural vocabulary is embellished with elements such as thread, lace, and insect wings - a mélange that inspires discovery and wonderment."

For more information on the Field and Greene exhibitions, visit the Kinz, Tillou and Feigen Gallery website. To see more of Lori's gorgeous, dreamlike imagery, visit the Lori Field Fine Art website.

Kids' Chalk Art Project

This spring the Kids' Chalk Art Project in Alameda California will attempt to produce the world's largest sidewalk chalk drawing. The group's mission is to "re-enchant the world through art" and the project seeks to raise awareness about the importance of art in the lives of children. At the end of April, children and adults will come together to create the single chalk drawing over a two-week period, "culminating with a multi-arts festival, open to the public, on the decommissioned Naval Air Base of Alameda Point on June 7, 2008."  They are also planning a satellite photo of the project and are attempting to beat the current Guinness World Record of 60,439.3 square feet (in 2006 in Belgium, made by 700 volunteers). You can check out lots of photos of the current and past Youth Art Chalk projects here.

There is a terrific article on the project at Edutopia and you can now follow the adventure at the Kids' Chalk Art Project Blog, hosted by artist and organizer, Mark Wagner. What a spectacular way for a community to come together and create something extraordinary. (And consider making a tax deductible donation -- after all, that's a lot of chalk!)

O.R. Melling wins Green Earth Book Award

JoMA would like to extend a hearty congratulations to O.R. Melling, whose novel The Light Bearer's Daughter recently won the Green Earth Book Award and was listed in the ALA Top Ten Youth Books for the Environment. (You can read my review of this novel and the whole Chronicles of Faerie trilogy here.)

Along with a money prize, the award also contributes money to an environmental agency of the author's choosing. O.R. selected Golden Eagle Reintroduction Project, a project to reintroduce the Golden Eagle, which was hunted to extinction in Ireland in the 19th century. About the project's success in Ireland, O.R. told me "The project -- bringing young eagles from Scotland to the cliffs of Donegal -- is now in its seventh year and had its first great success in December." Pretty cool. It also resonates with one of the novel's most important themes, articulated by the fairy wood mouse: "not all that is gone is gone forever." Below is a photograph of one of the new chicks. Beautiful!

Paula Rego Retrospective

The National Museum of Women in the Arts is having a spectacular retrospective of the Portuguese painter Paula Rego that will run from February 1 to May 25th. If you have any reason to head to Washington D. C. don't miss this show. Rego's work is so powerful -- all of her remarkable earthy female figures evoke mythic strength, whether it is a matronly, full figured dog-woman (such as "Grooming" below), a poignant, youthful Mary in "Pieta" (bottom image), or even as above in "Looking Out," which depicts a woman caught in a moment of mysterious reflection, one bare foot planted on the ground, the other ready to step up and out.

Here is a description of the show from the museum: " Paula Rego is one of the leading figurative artists working today, producing richly imaginative art rooted in memories, fantasy, literature, art history, and direct observation. A native of Portugal who lives in London, Rego uses her art to explore the precariousness of human emotions and the complexity of life’s experiences. Although her work is acclaimed around the globe and is represented in leading contemporary art collections, NMWA is the first U.S. museum to present a retrospective of her work. Featuring more than 100 works—including paintings, pastels, prints, and drawings—the exhibition provides an in-depth study of Rego’s 50-year-plus career."

You can see more of her work at the Saatchi Gallery as well as this terrific site from the University of Cambridge's Spanish and Portuguese department.

The Return of The Rusalka Cycle: Kitka

Kitka, an all-women's ensemble specializing in Balkan music, collaborated a while back with Ukrainian-born singer and composer Mariana Sadovska to create the "The Rusalka Cycle," a choral performance of the laments of the Rusalka, the haunted spirits of drowned women. Due to the success of the show, Kitka has prepared an encore performance for January 4, 5, and 6th at Kanbar Hall in San Francisco. (Go here for times, directions, and ticket ordering.) Here's a brief description of the show from Kitka's website:

"In Slavic Folklore, Rusalki are the restless spirits of women who have died unjust, untimely, or unnatural deaths. They inhabit the waters, forests, and fields, luring people to them with their mesmerizing songs and wild laughter. Performed by the nine powerful female vocalists of Kitka, together with percussionist Loren Mach and cellists Jessica Ivry and Myra Chaney, The Rusalka Cycle is a riveting, dream-like journey that weaves traditional Eastern European folk song and ritual together with original music by Mariana Sadovska in a haunting and evocative contemporary theater production directed by Ellen Sebastian Chang.

"Our re-imagined 2008 production features new costumes by Valera Coble, lighting design by Jack Carpenter, sound design by Cuco Daglio, beguiling new characters, and many dramatic moments previously unseen."

It's also worth noting that even if you can't see the show, the CD is available from the website. And do, do, do stop by their MySpace page to hear some of their gorgeous singing.

New Year's Day Traditions

Every culture seems to have several unique ways of not only celebrating New Year's day but also insuring good luck for the following year. I must admit that in my family, my mother (a Tibetan scholar) followed the Tibetan tradition of calling out for Rabbit as the year turned new. I have never understood why entirely -- Trickster is hardly noted for being dependable -- yet I do it dutifully every year, no matter where I am. Even as friends around me are clinking glasses and singing Robbie Burn's Auld Lang Syne, I am whispering under my breath "Rabbit, Rabbit," before joining in the song.

Here's an interesting list of New Year's superstitions, ranging from eating black eyed peas for luck to making sure nothing leaves the house New Year's Day. Also have a look at this list of foods specially prepared for New Year's day (I like the Cuban tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight!). So, gentle readers, what are your New Year's traditions and superstitions? What do you do to welcome in the New Year and along with it, luck?

*Art above is from Rea Irvin, depicting a Happy New Year in 1867 and 1917...see how times have changed!

Wait! There's more!

     

Yesterday we told you about the terrific illustration exhibition running at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. If you can get to London quickly, there's also a terrific show on until January 5th at the Chris Beetles Gallery: The British Art of Illustration, 1800 - 2007 -- featuring 1000 pictures covering 200 years of illustration history.

    

The artists covered include the ones we've pictured here (from top to bottom): Florence Harrison, Arthur Rackham, William Heath Robinson, Helen Jacobs, and Jane Johnson -- as well as Harry Clarke, Walter Crane, Edmund Dulac, HJ Ford, Kate Greenaway, Warwick Goble, Kay Nielsen, Beatrix Potter, Charles Robinson, Jessica Wilcox Smith, Margaret Tarrant, and many, many others. (And for those of you with deeper pockets than ours, these gorgeous pictures are all for sale.) If you can't make it to the show, you can view the art on the gallery's extensive website, and purchase their handsomely produced exhibition catalog. (With thanks to my neighbor David Wyatt, a fine illustrator himself, for bringing this exhibition to our attention.)

     

         

The Age of Enchantment

 

If you're in London, or heading that way soon, don't miss The Age of Enchantment: Beardsley, Dulac and their Contemporaries, 1890 - 1930 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, which is on now until February 17. Here's the gallery's description of this gem of a show:

"With the death of Aubrey Beardsley in 1898, the world of the illustrated book underwent a dramatic change. Gone were the degenerate images of scandal and deviance. The age of decadence was softened to delight rather than to shock. Whimsy and a pastel toned world of childish delights and an innocent exoticism unfolded in the pages of familiar fables, classic tales and those children’s stories like The Arabian Nights and Hans Andersen's Stories. These were published with lavish colour plates and fine bindings: these were the coffee table books of a new age.

"As a result a new generation of illustrators emerged. This new group of artists was intent upon borrowing from the past, especially the fantasies of the rococo, the rich decorative elements of the Orient, the Near East, and fairy worlds of the Victorians. The masters of this new art form were artists like Edmund Dulac and Kay Nielsen, whose inventive book productions, with those of Arthur Rackham, became legendary. Disciples gathered, like Jessie King and Annie French, the Scottish masters of the ethereal and the poetic, the Detmold Brothers, masters of natural fantasy, as well as those who remained in Beardsley’s shadow: the warped yet fascinating works of Sidney Sime, a joyously eccentric coal-miner turned artist, Laurence Housman, master of the fairy tale, the precious inventions from the classics by Charles Ricketts, the Irish fantasies of Harry Clarke, himself a master of stained glass as well as the gift book, and the rich and exotic world of Alaistair. Children’s stories were transformed by the imaginations of a group still bowing to the Victorians Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway and the fairies of Richard Doyle but these were now given a more colourful intensity by Charles Robinson, Patten Wilson, Anning Bell, Bernard Sleigh and Maxwell Armfield.

"The exhibition of British fantasy illustration will be the first such exhibition in Britain and the first worldwide for over 20 years (the last being in New York in 1979). All works, of which over 100 are planned, will come largely from British museums and private collections, many of these will never have been seen publicly before in Britain. The exhibition is curated by Rodney Engen."

Visit the gallery's website for more information (including pictures, videos, and an audio file of the Director's Lecture), or to purchase an exhibition catalog. The Dulwich Picture Gallery is also running a "Create A Fairy Tale Illustration" competition, with entries due Janurary 28th. The competition rules are here, and you can view the current entries here.

Online Salon with The Interstitial Arts Foundation

   
I recently received word from Interstitial Arts Foundation board member Kris McDermott that the topic of their upcoming online salon is THE comics collective The Chemistry Set...

The comic that caught our eye was one by Phillipine artist Andrew Drilon, called Mang Tomas the Story Hunter – in which the Hero mutters, “INTERSTITIAL FICTION – KISS MY GUN!” We’re not sure if he’s giving us a shout-out or a slam, but we loved it! And then, of course, we wanted more.

He – and many of the other writer/artists on the site – approach graphic storytelling from a joyous mix of perspectives. I’m particularly intrigued by Drilon’s incorporation of Filipino archetypes and myths into his stories, but other series – Steven Goldman’s Styx Taxi, and Elizabeth Genco’s Scheherazade also use the handy vehicle of myth to explore some exciting intersections between visual and literary culture.

So visit the site and come back to discuss your impression of this project. Is the graphic novel/comic book the most interstitial form of pop culture going today, and if so, what is its future? What else have you encountered like “The Chemistry Set”? Does multiculturalism aid and abet interstitiality – and vice versa? Our conversation will begin here on December 8 and continue for a week. Hope to see you there!

WHEN: Saturday, Dec. 8-Saturday, Dec. 15
WHERE: This thread @ the IAF message board
WHAT: Discuss The Chemistry Set – we call ‘em interstitial; do you?

Needless to say, I'm tickled. Andrew Drilon is a stunning talent - if you haven't checked out his Kare-Kare Komiks yet, you're in for a treat! Andrew recently took 2nd place at 2nd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards.  He's definitely a creator for fans of mythic arts to watch. 

My latest favorite from Andrew: Grinwit.

Ruskin and the Persephone Myth

For those of you near Lancaster University in England, do stop by to see this amazing exhibit of art inspired by the Demeter and Persephone myths. The exhibit, which runs until December 21, is housed at the Ruskin Library at the university.

The exhibit is divided into distinct galleries. The first gallery "offers a variety of artistic responses to the Persephone myth. The intention is to provide an environment in which the visitor can become familiar with different aspects and interpretations of the myth; soak in it; taste it; have the opportunity to become aware of the enriching power that it has always possessed, and still does. Its range is intentionally wide, stretching from the high art of Rossetti’s Proserpine to the everyday culture of modern children’s  books." (Kudos to author and artist Kris Waldherr who has a piece of art in this exhibit.)

The second gallery is devoted to John Ruskin's work on the myth, including "his books and drawings of Greek coins; his studies of flowers and plants; his mythologizing of the natural world; the tragedy of his love of Rose La Touche and his identification of her with Proserpine; and of course his book devoted to a new, humanised, mythologised botany - Proserpina itself. An important purpose of the exhibition is to show Ruskin’s mythologizing in a light that illuminates its highly personal characteristics, while also making clear its deep roots in universal human experience."

This exhibit has managed to collect some incredible pieces of art: "Dinah Prentice’s innovative and moving Persephone Rising, lent by the artist, is the largest work (twelve feet by nine) so far exhibited in the Ruskin Library; and the works by Rossetti and Burne-Jones lent by Birmingham Art Gallery provide a powerful underpinning to the whole display. In particular, the presence here in Lancaster of Rossetti’s Proserpine (pictured above) -– one of the most  famous of all Pre-Raphaelite images."

And stop by the Journal of Mythic Art's archives and read a terrific article on Demeter and Persephone, "Death and Return in the Myth of Demeter and Persephone" by Kathie Carlson. And check out more of Dinah Prentice's art here (especially her images of the Maenads all done in hand dyed and sewn silk).

Fantasy Matters

The first Fantasy Matters Conference was held the weekend of 16-18 November 2007 at the University of Minnesota Law School. Nearly two hundred people from all over the world were in attendance, and I, along with Lindsay Craig and Jennifer Miller, had the privilege of being one of the organizers.

When planning the conference, we wanted the dialog to include both the academic and creative aspects of fantasy literature. To that end, we were extremely fortunate in our keynote speakers. Eminent scholar Jack Zipes gave an erudite and challenging critical address: "The Delusion and Hope of the Fantastic: Why Fantasy Matters Too Much." Award-winning author Neil Gaiman did an absolutely delightful reading of the first chapter of the forthcoming Graveyard Book, and shared some of his own thoughts on why fantasy matters. Both Jack and Neil were generous with their time and energy, and their presence was appreciated and enjoyed.

Other highlights included an opening panel reading organized by Haddayr Copley-Woods and featuring nine local authors, including Barth Anderson and Naomi Kritzer. We had panel discussions on topics including Fantasy Literature and Politics, Writing and Publishing Fantasy Literature, and Comics and Fantasy Literature. Over fifty scholars presented papers. Featured readers Pat Rothfuss, Drew Bowling, Pamela Dean, David Anthony Durham, Jim C. Hines, and Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu all read from recent or forthcoming works and DreamHaven Books was on hand to make sure we all got our fix of excellent books. The closing panel -- Jack Zipes, Pat Rothfuss, Theodora Goss, Jen Miller, and I -- readdressed the question of why fantasy matters. We didn't come to any conclusions, but it is a discussion we all hope will continue.

Many people have asked whether or not we are planning on making this conference a regular event. The short answer at this point is, we don't know, but we're not ruling it out. We thank all of you who attended, particularly those of you who first heard about the conference here at the Journal of Mythic Arts. And we thank all of you who know that fantasy matters.

Photo credits: Adam Miller and Gabriel Gryffyn. Top photo: Neil Gaiman and Jack Zipes, bottom photo Patrick Rothfuss.

A Recipe from the Crease of My Eye

Danielle E. Sucher of the fabulous Habeas Brulee food blog has announced a recipe competition based on Catherynne Valente's Orphan's Tales duology (and I promise a long review of In the Cities of Coin and Spice soon!). Sucher herself, inspired by the sensual worlds of Valente's novels, produced the beautiful (and no doubt delicious) Apples Doused in Cardamom Wine pictured above. (Go here to see the full recipe -- it's pretty amazing.)

To participate: "All you have to do is post a recipe inspired by the books. This includes any recipe involving things that are layered or things that are stuffed (which echo the structure of the stories), as well as things that are otherwise inspired by the books."

The competition ends December 17th (and yes, there are prizes, though I would think the recipes alone would be wealth enough). Check here for all the submission details.

On fairy tales and hares...

If any JoMA readers live in the south-west of England, I hope you'll consider attending the above event, which is part of the "Myths & Legends" season at The Big Red Sofa (in Chagford, on Dartmoor). I'll be talking about the history of fairy tales -- looking at the ways complex adult stories were turned, over the centuries, into simple fables for children. I'll be joined by storyteller Howard Gayton (artistic director of the Ophaboom Theatre Company), who'll recount some of the older, darker, stranger versions of fairy tales. (Please note that this is an event appropriate for adults and mature teenagers, not for younger children.)   

Contact The Big Red Sofa if you need more information. And keep an eye on the Sofa's new MySpace page (go "friend" them if you're a MySpace user!), and their new blog, Sofa Talk. Launching today, Sofa Talk will contain news, book reviews, event listings and general ramblings about life on Dartmoor. Right now, for example, there's a terrific exhibition on at the Sofa featuring the art of Jim Fortey -- including Dartmoor landscapes, mythological subjects, and many magical hares, as in the painting below:

   

For more on the local mythology of hares, check out the Three Hares Project on Chris Chapman's website, and my article on hare and rabbit lore from around the world.

The video below is of Dartmoor musician Seth Lakeman performing "The White Hare," his magical song based on local shape-shifter legends. (You can read the lyrics here.)

Desert Diwali

 

The photograph above, "Desert Diwali" by Stu Jenks, comes from a flamboyant (if somewhat untraditional) celebration of the Hindu Festival of Light hosted by the pyrotechnic group Flam Chen in Tucson, Arizona. See Stu's blog for his description of the event.

Congratulations to the WFC Award Winners

A hearty congratulations to all the incredible nominees in all of the categories for the World Fantasy awards -- and a round of applause for the winners (way to go Terri, Ellen, and Jeff ):

Life Achievement:   
winner Betty Ballantine
winner Diana Wynne Jones

Novel:   
winner Soldier of Sidon, Gene Wolfe (Tor)
Lisey's Story, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)
The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner (Bantam Spectra; Small Beer Press)
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch (Gollancz; Bantam Spectra)
The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden, Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)

Novella:
winner "Botch Town", Jeffrey Ford (The Empire of Ice Cream, Golden Gryphon)
"The Man Who Got Off the Ghost Train", Kim Newman (The Man from the Diogenes Club, MonkeyBrain)
Dark Harvest, Norman Partridge (Cemetery Dance)
"Map of Dreams", M. Rickert (Map of Dreams, Golden Gryphon)
"The Lineaments of Gratified Desire", Ysabeau S. Wilce (F&SF 7/06)

Short Fiction:
winner "Journey Into the Kingdom", M. Rickert (F&SF 5/06)
"The Way He Does It", Jeffrey Ford (Electric Velocipede 10 Spring '06)
"A Siege of Cranes", Benjamin Rosenbaum (Twenty Epics, All-Star Stories)
"Another Word for Map Is Faith", Christopher Rowe (F&SF 8/06)
"Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)", Geoff Ryman (F&SF 10-11/06)

Anthology:
winner Salon Fantastique, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (Thunder's Mouth)
Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard, Scott A. Cupp & Joe R. Lansdale, eds.(MonkeyBrain and the Fandom Association of Central Texas)
Retro Pulp Tales, Joe R. Lansdale, ed. (Subterranean)
Twenty Epics, David Moles & Susan Marie Groppi, eds. (All-Star Stories)
Firebirds Rising, Sharyn November, ed. (Firebird)

Collections:
winner Map of Dreams, M. Rickert (Golden Gryphon)
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
The Empire of Ice Cream, Jeffrey Ford (Golden Gryphon)
American Morons, Glen Hirshberg (Earthling)
Red Spikes, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin Australia; Knopf)

Artist:
winner Shaun Tan
Jon Foster
Edward Miller
John Picacio
Jill Thompson      

Special Award: Professional:
winner Ellen Asher (For work at SFBC)
Mark Finn (for Blood & Thunder: The Life of Robert E. Howard, MonkeyBrain)
Deanna Hoak for copyediting
Greg Ketter for DreamHaven
Leonard S. Marcus, ed. (for The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy, Candlewick)

Special Award: Non Professional:
winner Gary K. Wolfe (for reviews and criticism in Locus and elsewhere)
Leslie Howle (for her work at Clarion West)
Leo Grin (for The Cimmerian)
Susan Marie Groppi (for Strange Horizons)
John Klima (for Electric Velocipede)

Wilfredo Lam: Cuban Surrealist

In accordance with National Hispanic Month, the Haggerty Museum in Milwaukee is hosting a rare retrospective exhibition of sixty paintings by Cuban Surrealist Wilfredo Lam. The art has been collected from galleries around the world to create this single, stunning presentation of his seminal work. The show runs from October 11, 2007 to January 21, 2008. Check here for additional scheduled events planned for the exhibition.

Born in 1902 in Sagua la Grande, Cuba, Lam's family moved to Havana where he attended the Escuela de Bellas Artes. In 1923, Lam moved to Madrid where he continued his studies at the studio of Fernando Alvarez de Sotomayor, the director of the Museo del Prado. Lam's early work was inspired by the Surrealist movement and by artists such as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, who encouraged Lam's interest in traditional African and Afro-Cuban art. He also traveled to Mexico and stayed with Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera.

Lam's work reflects his own multicultural heritage (the son of a Chinese father and a mother of mixed African, Indian, and European descent) and his growing interest in Santeria, a religion rooted in African traditions. During WWII, Lam returned to the Caribbean, along with anthropologist Claude Levis Strauss and author Andre Breton, whose prose poem, "Fata Morgana," Lam illustrated in 1940. Returning to Havana in 1941, Lam was introduced to Carl Jung's theories and began to produce some of his most powerful paintings, exploring the mythic themes and images of the Caribbean. "Jungle" (above), for example, considered to be Lam's masterpiece, intertwines figures and nature in a dense and vibrant landscape to create a visual experience of a spiritual state.

Lam's work offered a unique fusion of Afro-Caribbean spirit, Surrealism, and contemporary art. Throughout the 1950s and '60s Lam lived in Europe, settling for a time in Paris and later establishing a studio in Albisola Mare, on the Italian coast. In 1964 he received the Guggenheim International Award, and between 1966-67 there were multiple retrospectives of his work in several European cities. Lam died in 1982 in Paris.

Happily, this extraordinary show will be touring the United States after its opening at the Haggerty Museum of Art. The exhibition will travel to the Miami Art Museum, The Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California, and the Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida.

Send in the clowns!

 

The spirit of the mythic Trickster is alive and well in Knoxville, Tennessee, where clowns are using contrariness and laughter to combat racism.

In an article on the Asheville Indymedia website (via Digsby), Chris Irwin tells a hilarious story of a Nazi/KKK hate rally foiled by the Anti-Racist Action group's clown brigade. As Irwin describes the event:

“White Power!” the Nazi’s shouted. “White flour?” the clowns yelled back, running in circles throwing flour in the air and raising separate letters which spelt “White Flour.”

“White Power!” the Nazi’s angrily shouted once more. “White flowers?” the clowns cheered as they threw white flowers in the air and danced about merrily.

“White Power!” the Nazi’s tried once again in a doomed and somewhat funny attempt to clarify their message. “Ohhhhhh!” the clowns yelled, “tight shower!” and held a solar shower in the air. They all tried to crowd under to get clean as per the Klan’s directions.

At this point several of the Nazi and Klan members began clutching their hearts as if they were about to have heart attacks....One last time they screamed “White Power!”

 

The clown women thought they finally understood what the Klan was trying to say. “Ohhhhh,” the women clowns said. “Now we understand…WIFE POWER!” They lifted the letters up in the air, grabbed the nearest male clowns and lifted them in their arms and ran about merrily chanting “WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER! WIFE POWER!”

(Read the full text of Irwin's wonderful story here.) 

Fools and clowns have played an important role in many ancient traditions around the world. The sacred clowns of the Hopi and other Native American tribes, for example, disrupt and mock solemn ceremonies and chastise tribal wrong–doers by mimicking transgressive behavior. They have license to be rude, crude, lewd, and utterly outrageous -- for in their contrary way they are teachers and healers, using laughter as their medicine. Hinduism and Zen Buddhism have a long tradition of divine craziness, practiced by mad ascetics who lead contrary lives as acts of religious devotion. Ritual clowning appears in the Christian world in Carnaval celebrations and the Feast of Fools, in which all the usual social rules are suspended or turned up–side–down.

For more about Tricksters and clowns around the world, see the Winter 2007 issue of Endicott's Journal of Mythic Arts, which was devoted to the subject. And for more on clowns as political activists, visit the Rebel Clown Army website.

The Hopi clown kachina, above left, is by Richard Gorman. The Pueblo clown sculptures, above, are by Roxanne Swentzell. 

Under the Radar continues

Stop into Gwenda Bond's Shaken and Stirred to read her excellent essay on the works of Margaret Mahy -- one of the best writers of YA fantasy from the 1980s, whose work still holds up extremely well. And after that, stop by Colleen Mondor's Chasing Ray to read her essay on Pamela Dean's wonderful novel Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary. The collection of essays in this week's Under the Radar have been illuminiating -- reminding me of so many great novels that deserve to be read over and over by new generations of young adult readers (and adults!)

Recommendations From Under the Radar

Once again the indomitable, well-organized Colleen Mondor has put together a fascinating schedule of writers, YA novels, and blog discussions titled "Recommendations From Under the Radar." And what a collection of literary gems it is. The full schedule of the week's posts on supporting blogs can be found here. One of today's offerings is a look at Elizabeth Knox's Dreamhunter Duet by Gwenda Bond at Shaken and Stirred. Also today, Bildungsroman is digging deep into "the Final Girl Theory "* and the novel Innocence by Jane Mendelsohn -- with a three-way (and three part!) discussion of the novel between literary bloggers Little Willow of Bildungsroman (Part I), Colleen Mondor of Chasing Ray (Part II), and Kiba from lectitans (Part III).

*"The Final Girl Theory" is the image of the last girl standing in the final scenes of a slasher horror movie. The term was coined by feminist film critic Carol J. Clover in her book Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film.