Endicott Redux

Endings...and new beginnings

 

The Endicott Studio for Mythic Arts (founded in Boston in 1987) was originally a bricks-and-mortar studio -- a workspace, exhibition space, and gathering place for creative artists inspired by myth, folklore, and fairy tales. Over the next two decades, it evolved into a nonprofit arts organization (based in Tucson, Arizona and Devon, UK), supporting a wide variety of mythic projects, events, and publications.

One of those projects was The Journal of Mythic Arts, and (more recently) this blog. Endicott has been online since 1997, making JoMA one of the oldest web journals in our field. Our mission was to promote contemporary mythic arts and to provide resources and information for mythic artists, students, and scholars.

When we came on to the web, this mission seemed particularly important because there wasn't much mythic arts information out there yet. Today, happily, it's a different story. Many mythic writers, artists, and performers maintain extensive websites, and there's also a range of good webzines, blogs, discussion forums, and print journals to chose from -- such as Mythic Passages, Fairy Tale Review, Phantasmaphile, Cabinet des Fées, Goblin Fruit, Les Bonnes Fees, Café Irreal, Fantasy Magazine, Stainless Steel Droppings, Dante's Heart, Magpie Magazine, Shaken & Stirred, Chasing Ray, Ullabenulla, and BibliOdyssey; as well as discussion forums such as The Interstitial Salon and Surlalune's, and mixed media 'zines such as Born Magazine and Dreaming Methods.

And so, dear readers, Midori and I have decided it's time for JoMA to come to an end. It has had our volunteer labor for over a decade -- which has been both a privilege and a labor of love -- but now we're both feeling the need to turn our focus to our own creative work. I was quite touched when a review (a year or two ago) referred to Midori and me as "the godmothers and muses of the mythic arts field"...but at the same, I have found myself reflecting on the following words from Anais Nin: "For too many centuries women have been busy being muses to artists. I wanted to be the muse...but I was really trying to avoid the final issue -- that I had to do the job myself." There's a point in a woman's life (since we're not getting any younger!) when it is time to narrow ones focus.

The mythic arts field has changed extensively since the Endicott Studio began. For one thing, it's become recognized as a field...and that, if nothing else, makes me very glad that we've been here all these years. Now, however, it's time for the next generation to pick up the torch and carry it further.

We're not disappearing altogether, however:

• A large selection of material from the archives of the Journal of Mythic Arts will remain online as a mythic arts resource. (Please note that this is archived material only -- links and recommendations will not be updated after 2008.)
• Both Midori and I are publishing personal blogs (In the Labyrinth and Myth & Moor), mixing mythic arts recommendations with other reflections on art, books, music, and the writing life.

Now we throw this open to you, in the Comments thread. What are your thoughts about the mythic arts field? Where do you think it is (or should be) heading next? Please recommend places where Endicott readers can now go for their fix of daily mythic arts...or tell us how myth has affected your own work...or just wish us luck.

Thank you, all of you, for your support of JoMA -- and for being part of the mythic arts community. (And thank you, Carl V., for the very kind write-up you gave the Endicott Studio a while back on Stainless Steel Droppings.)

Many thanks, too, to all the writers, artists, and scholars who generously contributed their work to JoMA and this blog. (The art in this post, for example, is by the lovely Jeanie Tomanek, whose gorgeous, inspiring imagery has graced so many JoMA pages.) Thank you also to our reviewers, Kathleen Howard, Elizabeth Genco, & Helen Pilinovsky; and to Paul Hinze, for all the technical support he provided. And especially to our Assistant Editor, Jamie Bluth. It's been a privilege to work with you all.

- Terri Windling, Devon, UK

 

To sleep, perchance to dream. . .

Two final artists to add to yesterday's list:

First, British illustrator Jackie Morris. I especially love her many images of children and young women sleeping entwined with animals, although she also has a range of other imagery that is equally enchanting.

 

Morris was born in Birmingham, and studied art in Hereford, Exeter, and Bath. She then worked in London for several years, doing freelance illustration for newspapers, magazines, cards and calendars. She now lives in the Welsh countryside, illustrating children's books and creating art for exhibition. Visit the Jackie Morris Website to see more of her work.

Second, my friend Jason Hancox in Devon has finally got a website featuring his beautiful mythic jewelry. I love his work and have been wearing it for years. Go here to have a look.

Art Treasures

There are so many wonderful artists out there creating magical illustrations and mythic art that it is impossible to keep up with them all...but here are some folks we'd like to introduce you to if you don't already know their work:

Multi-media artist Rafael Navarro hails from Mexico City and now lives in Phoenix, Arizona. "I work by instinct," he says, "through an internal dialogue that I can't ignore. The ideas dictate the medium, thereby fostering a strong relationship between the images and materials. I draw inspiration from my heritage, personal observations, and childhood memories." You can see more of Navarro's work here.

A. Andrew Gonzalez lives in Spicewood, Texas, where he creates "transfigurative and esoteric" art. "Having a keen interest in all things esoteric and mystical," he says, "I have come to view the airbrush as an alchemical instrument, using air to sublimate the liquid pigment material into an exalted refined state, the symbolic transmutation of matter into spirit. This symbolism of the alchemical 'Sublimatio' defines the underlying motif of my entire work." To see more of Gonzalez's art, visit the Sublimatrix Gallery site.

Illustrator Kelly Murphy describes herself as "Basically like your mom after five Manhattans...." She divides her time between Massachusetts and Isle-de-France. You can see more of her delightful work on her website and MySpace page.

June Leeloo is an illustrator in Nantes, France who lists Klimt, Mucha, Schiele and Asian art as her major influences. "My paintings usually depict women with a mischievous air," she says, "lost in their thoughts, innocent, peaceful or gently erotic, I let you meet them...." Visit her website to see more of her work.

Laurie Lipton was born in New York, and has been living in London since 1986. "I was inspired by the religious paintings of the Flemish School," she says, ".... all that detail!! After trying to teach myself how to paint in the style of the 17th century Masters, I developed a unique cross-hatching drawing technique that matched their method of painting by building up form with thousands of tiny lines. Although tedious, the result was a beautiful, clear tonality and astonishing detail. It's an insane way of drawing, though." Visit her website to see more of her extraordinary drawings.

The picture on the left is is "Raven Rider" by Connie Green, a painter and jewelry maker in Arizona. You can see other charming works by Green on the artist's MySpace page.

Dessi is a 19-year-old artist in Savannah, Georgia who lists Mucha and the Pre-Raphaelites as sources of inspiration. "I like to identify myself as an idealist; however, disappointment often gets the best of me," she says. "I like to think there is a silver lining to this cycle of idealism and disappointment. I believe it makes me into a better artist, and gives me more to pull from in my exploration of new concepts and ideas, which are often very melancholy, despite my work being whimsical and delicate in nature." You can see more of her art on the Deviant Art site, and on her MySpace page.

Michaela Meadow is a London designer who creates "one of a kind handmade clothes to delight, fairytale frocks and vintage treasures." Visit her Meadow Doe MySpace page to see her work, which is truly magical.

Radio interview...today!

I've been terribly remiss in not mentioning before that I'll be on the radio talking about myth today -- at station KWMR out of Pt. Reyes, California (90.5 FM), 11 a.m. California time. If you're not in northern California, you can also hear the interview online through the station's website.

The painting to the right is by mythic artist Mark Wagner, who hails (like me) from Pennsylvania but now lives and works in northern California. Visit his Hearts and Bones Studio to see more of his magical art.

The Monday Video

It's very hard to choose a Monday Video this week, with my head and my heart still full of Friday night's Calexico concert. So here's one from a band I love just as much (and who also give great concerts at the Rialto here in Tucson): the fabulous, big-hearted, and irrepressible Ozomatli. In the video above, we see the band in an unusually quiet, acoustic groove, performing their beautiful song "Cuando Cando" -- which speaks about using the gift of music to make a difference in the world. (I believe that mythic arts can do the same.)

Based in LA, this multi-cultural band does indeed use their music to address political and spiritual topics and to be a force for community activism and positive change. For the full-on Ozomatli experience (plus some fabulous chicken masks), check out their video for La Gallina (which we featured on this blog in the past). And here's a little video interview of the lads talking about making "Don't Mess With the Dragon."

I always find it a little bit hard to come back to big, brash America from my little village in the English countryside...but exuberant, multi-cultural, inclusive and generous-spirited bands like Ozomotli and Calexico remind me of all things I like best in the American spirit, and make me glad to be here.

The Sunday Poems

      

...Gretel would not blame him or leave
him alone there to be fattened and cooked or flattened
into a shadow against the walls of a rotten-toothed
candy hag.  Because she knew he would do the same
for her, their names were the same words and,
when whispered, sounded together like buried, like
something bad turned into something good.....

-- from "Hansel & Gretel: Home by Pebble Echoes" by Evelyn M. Perry

We have not one but five Sunday Poems for you today. They're all by Evelyn M. Perry, they're all based on fairy tales, and they're all as evocative and thought-provoking as the excerpt above. You'll find them here, in the archives of the Cortland Review website.

A literary scholar and folklorist as well as a poet, Perry's work has appeared in a wide variety of journals and collections. She has received awards for fiction writing from the North Kingstown Arts Council and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and for poetry from the Academy of American Poets and Salt Hill. She teaches writing and literature at Framingham State College in Massachusetts.

I addition to her excellent poetry, I recommend Dr. Perry's article "Maid Marion Made Possible: Feminist Advances in Late 20th Century Re-tellings of the Robin Hood Legend for Young Adults," which appears online on the Alan Review website.

 

The illustrations for "Hansel and Gretel" and "Snow White" above are by Charles Robinson (1870-1937).

More from the desert...

I've just got to spread a little more Calexico-love here, because their hometown concert at the Rialto Theater last night was one of the most astonishingly good performances I've seen in a long, long time...maybe ever. With two full mariachi bands and a host of other musicians (there must have been 30-odd musicians on stage by the end), it's a wonder they didn't blow the roof off the place with their energy, their passion, and their big, bold, beautiful sound. This band encapsulates everything I love best about Tucson: the fusion of laconic cowboy style with vibrant Mexican border culture; the exuberant mix of Sonoran cultural traditions, aesthetics, and languages; and the ever-present dusty heat of the desert, which is almost palpable in Calexico's music. Bravo, guys, and thanks for a great show.

Above, the video for their song "Crystal Frontier" (containing references to the La Llorona folktale), which was performed to perfection last night as one of the evening's finales. YouTube has a number of good Calexico videos if you want more, including live performances of "Hit the Ground Running" and "Across the Wire." 

Sad News

We've just learned that Robert Lynn Asprin passed away in his home in New Orleans on Thursday. Best known these days for his MythAdventures series of comedic fantasy novels, Bob pioneered the "shared world anthology" genre with his entertaining and innovative Thieves' World series for Ace Books back in the 1980s. All the shared world series that followed -- such as Liavek, edited by Emma Bull & Will Shetterly, Wild Cards, edited by George R.R. Martin, and, of course, my own Borderland, owe a serious debt to Bob.

He will be missed.

Voices from Fairyland: Fantastical Poetry

Voices from Fairyland, edited by Theodora Goss, features the fantastical poems of Mary Coleridge (1861-1907), Charlotte Mew (1869-1928), and Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978). The book is published as part of the "Conversation Pieces" series from Aqueduct Press. (Learn more about it on Aqueduct's blog.)

I admit I'm not wild about the book's design (there are so many great drawings and paintings by Victorian women artists that could have been chosen for the cover), but I have nothing but praise for what's inside. This is a wonderful little volume, spotlighting classic poems that are too little known today, even by mythic arts aficionados, supported by excellent essays that put these writers' work into context. Aqueduct Press asked Goss to include some of her own magical poetry in the book -- an unusual but successful choice, for it shows how Goss's work (like the work of a number of other women writers in the mythic arts field) is part of an on-going conversation with women writers who came before us.

"In this book," she says, "I have chosen to focus on poems by Mary Coleridge, Charlotte Mew, and Sylvia Townsend Warner because of all the poets I could have included, they are the ones who I think have been the most unjustly neglected -- the most talented among those whose talents have gone largely unrecognized....While I was working on this anthology, a friend asked me why I was working on it rather than on a story or even a novel. I said, 'If I don't do it, who will?' It felt like an obligation toward three women writers who have influenced me deeply.

"But Coleridge, Mew, and Warner are only three examples of what I consider a broader phenomenon, the rest of the ice that must be present, under water, when we see icebergs floating on a northern sea. That underwater ice is the tradition of women writing fantastical poetry."

I look forward to reading that larger anthology one day. In the meantime, Voices of Fairyland is a treasure, and I highly recommend it.

Art credits: The first two images above are by Emma Florence Harrison (1877-1925). The last two pieces are by Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825-1916) and Jennie Harbour (early 20th century, exact dates unknown).

Webzine Watch

The second issue of Dante's Heart is now online, and I recommend taking a look at this lovely little journal. Edited by Daniel Fusch with Andrew Hallam, Janette MacDonald, Ever Saskya, and Jessica Treadwell, Dante's Heart is dedicated to myth, folklore, fairy tales and fantasy -- and to providing a venue for both new and established creators of mythic arts.

Issue II contains fairy tale poetry from Rikki Santer, a folktale translated from the Dutch from Netherlands artist Isabella, and a peek at the latest project from the fabulous mythic filmmaker Lisa Stock, among other offerings. Best of all is Roberta Payne's translation of Libri del sette savi di Roma, a 14th century Italian story usually known as The Seven Sages of Rome. As Daniel Fusch explains, "The Seven Sages is a very old cycle of folk tales, many of them quite dangerous: in these tales young women and old fathers are treacherous, and there is a price to be paid for ignoring the random wisdom of animals."

If you missed the first issue of Dante's Heart, you'll find it here. They also have a blog, which you'll find here; and journal submission information is here.

I also recommend The Edge of the Forest, the children's literature monthly edited by Kelly Herold and Christine Marciniack. The journal isn't new -- just new to me, and I'm chagrined that I didn't know about it sooner. It's packed with good articles and reviews pertaining to all kinds of children's literature, from picture books through Middle Grade books to Young Adult fiction.

The art above is by Isabella.

The Death of the Critic

There's an interesting article on Salon.com in which Louis Bayard and Laura Miller discuss the current state of literary criticism, in response to a recent book on the subject, "The Death of the Critic" by Ronan McDonald.

"When I think about the critics I love the most," says Bayard, "they're not necessarily the ones I agree with, they're the ones I'd like to date. I argue with them, but when they're gone, their music is still bopping around in my brain. Many years ago, Susan Sontag, in 'Against Interpretation,' argued for 'an erotics of art.' Is it time now for an erotics of criticism? Instead of bemoaning the decline of literature, should we be doing a better job of showing people what they're missing: the excitement of unexpected insights, the thrill of new voices, the sex of ideas? That sounds like a lot more fun than figuring out which fiefdom we're going to defend in the Theory Wars."

Sneezle Interview

I've been gently chastised by an Endicott reader for not mentioning that I contributed a piece to the Green Man Review's Froud tribute issue when I blogged about the issue in Sunday's post.

Technically, it's Sneezle (the young hero of the "Old Oak Wood" series) who published the piece, not me ... but um, okay, here's a direct link to it. The interview may not make a heck of a lot of sense if you haven't read the three Sneezle books; but if you have, it contains some background on the project from the little guy himself.

               

On the Border

    

          Tell me where your country ends and mine begins

Someone I don’t know stops me on the street. She is a stranger, but clearly she knows who I am. She grabs my arm, then lets it go, then tells me she has just finished reading In Perfect Light. I smile awkwardly and nod, not really knowing what to say.

"It’s beautiful," she says. "Really beautiful. But your books are sad."

"Sad?"

"Yes."

"All of them?"

"Yes," she says.

"But full of hope and expectation," I add.

"Yes," she says, "But why do your characters have to suffer so much?"

"Well," I say, "They live on the border." And then I want to add. "My characters, some of them get saved." But that’s not what I say. Instead I reiterate my point. "Well, you see, my characters, they all live on the border."

...So begins a wonderful essay titled "Notes from Another Country" by New Mexican/Texan writer Benjamin Alire Sáenz -- author of adult novels, young adult novels, children's books, and poetry so gorgeous it lifts from the page as if on angels' wings. "Notes from Another Country" is available on Sáenz's website. You can read and/or download it here.

"I write in English, dream in Spanish, listen to Latin chants," says Sáenz. "I like streets where Chicanos make up words. Sometimes, I shout Italian words to wake the morning light. At dust, I breathe out fragments of Swahili. I want to feel words swimming in my throat like fighting fish that refuse to be hooked on a line."

The painting at the top of this post is by Tucson artist Daniel Martin Diaz. Visit Diaz's website and his MySpace page to see more of his work.

Rats!

    

The latest offering in the Interstitial Arts Foundation's benefit "jewelry auction" is the gorgeous piece above by our own Helen Pilinovsky -- who, in addition to being a fairy tale and mythic literature scholar, co-editor of Cabinet des Fées, and a reviewer here at Endicott, is also a professional jewelry maker and silversmith. The necklace was inspired by Veronica Schanoes' brilliant adult-fairy-tale story 'Rats,' published in the IAF's anthology Interfictions.

Here's what Helen has to say about the piece: " 'Rats' is a fairy tale inspired by a nightmare, a retelling of 'Sleeping Beauty' which overlays the death and life of Nancy Spungen, late of punk-rock legend. I read 'Rats' for the first time in the spring of 2006, I think, knowing nothing about Nancy Spungen or Sid Vicious - all I knew was that it was a beautiful, mind-blowing, heart-breaking revision of a fairy tale that had never really appealed to me. The innate passivity of 'Sleeping Beauty' had ticked me off since I was a child (maybe I was too influenced by an early reading of Hamlet: the line that always rang in my subconscious following her curse was 'were it not that I have bad dreams'). I could never figure out why she’d been so quick to trust, why she’d sought out the tender prick of the spindle in the first place. But, give our heroin(e) a reason to seek the needle? I’m there. All I know is, 'Rats' made me cry, which almost never happens.

"Lily, Surrounded by Rats is made up of antique faceted gunmetal glass beads, twinned black stick pearls, and a luminous tear-drop of jelly glass found in a junk shop."

To bid on the piece, go here.

     

The Monday Video

Last week I traveled from the cool green hills of England to my other home in the Arizona desert -- where it's hot, hot, hot, and after a winter of Dartmoor rain, I'm loving every minute of it.

Today's Monday Video, "The Battle of Cable Hogue," is in honor of the desert, and comes from a fabulously interstitial Tucson band, Calexico.  I love these guys (though I'm ashamed to say that it took a Canadian, Charles de Lint, to introduce me to their music many moons ago) -- so I was pleased to discover that they're playing here in Tucson at the Rialto Theatre on Friday night. I'm taking Midori and her family along with me. Maybe we'll see some of you there?

The Sunday Poem

Our Sunday Poem today is "Babylon," a melancholy piece by British poet and mythologist Robert Graves (1895-1985) in which the poet laments the loss of enchantment in our lives as we move from childhood to adulthood.

And yet, though such a loss is common, it is by no means inevitable--as fans of mythic arts can attest. As proof, I'm pairing Grave's poem with a link to "All Things Froud and Wonderful" (on the Green Man Review website), celebrating two artists whose lives and work become ever more magical year by year.

(You'll find more articles on Brian Froud and Wendy Froud in the Endicott archives and on The World of Froud website. The sculpture above is by Wendy.)

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.

Arthurian Britain

   

If, like me, you're a fan of Patrick McCormack's work, then you too have been eagerly awaiting the third and final volume of "Albion," his Arthurian trilogy. The third novel, The Lame Dancer, is now available -- for free! -- online, posted (with the author's permission) on the site of Professor Howard Wiseman, an Australian academic with a passion for British history.

McCormack is an Oxford-trained historian who lives on Dartmoor. His "Albion" series, set in 5th century Britain, is rigorously researched and does a fine job of bringing the society of the Dark Ages to life -- which is precisely why there are so many fellow historians among McCormack's fans. The books are dark, robust, heroic -- but there's also plenty of magic here, deeply rooted in myth, and the distinctive mysticism of the British landscape. If you haven't yet read McCormack's work, start with the first two books in the series: The Last Companion and The White Phantom. Now, I wish someone would bring this trilogy out in an American edition....

The art above is by another Dartmoor dweller, Alan Lee. Go here to see more of his drawings.

   

The Monday Video

Today is our May Day holiday here in Britain (even though May 1st was actually last week) -- a three-day-weekend holiday comparable (in practice if not intention) to the Memorial Day long-weekend in the U.S., but with its folkloric roots firmly planted in the pagan festival of Beltane.

In the last British census, a remarkable number of people identified themselves as pagans, wiccans, druids and pantheists. (Mind you, there was also a large contingent who identified themselves as Jedi Knights, so who knows how seriously people take these forms?) The West Country, where I live, has been a stronghold of pagan practices since ancient times, and one can still find many who hold pagan beliefs today -- not only in the young New Age community centered around places like Glastonbury and Totnes but also among the old country folk, some of whom see no conflict between adherence to both Christian and pagan spiritual practices.

Pagan and folkloric ceremonies are making something of a comeback in the UK, and various May Day celebrations, both old and new, can be found across the British Isles -- such as the Beltane Fire Festival in Scotland, the Padstow 'Obby 'Oss Festival in Cornwall, and the Parade of the Ooser in Dorset. Here in Devon, the pagan community has quietly engaged in ceremonies on hilltops and in old stone circles, while other parts of the populace celebrate with spring fetes sponsored by our village churches.

The Monday Video this week goes out to all the folks who lit Beltane fires on the hills this morning. It's a clip of the Hunters Moon Morris troupe performing at Wimborne Festival. If you go to the YouTube page itself, you'll find a short description (in the text to the right of the video) of the Morris tradition and its connection to May Day. Alas, I can't find any video clips of my very favorite Morris troupe, Beltane Border Morris, here in Devon. They're a young, raffish, slightly punky group that seems to have stepped off the streets of Bordertown, performing Morris dancing in an incantatory, deeply magical way that absolutely gives me chills. Check out their website for pictures and information on their dances. (A dancer from the troupe is pictured on the right.)

America has its share of May Day celebrations too -- the most famous and elaborate one being the May Day Parade and Festival sponsored by the Heart of the Beast puppet theater in Minneapolis, pictured here.

For more information on Beltane, read this excellent article by Heather Shaw on the Strange Horizons website -- complete with advice on how to put on May Day festivities in your own community.

Sunday Poem

Our Sunday poem this week is "It's Not a Just Situation: Though We Just Can't Keep Crying About It (For the Hip Hop Nation That Brings Us Such Exciting Art)" by Nikki Giovanni. The poem is written on the wall of a gallery at the National Portrait Museum as part of the exhibition 'Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture'. An audio loop of the poem serves as the background to Shinique Smith's mixed media installation.

Says Nikki Giovanni "This is the first generation to have everything yet to also have had everything taken away. They went to school with no books, no gym, no school play, no school newspaper, no band, no clean toilets, no grass on the playground, no hope in the eyes of their teachers.

"Yet they created. They created art, music, textiles, and technology and made their world the world the world comes to."

Nikki Giovanni is a poet, activist, and educator who has been an outspoken voice within the African American community for thirty years. Her book Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry's Rhymes and Rhythms will be available next October.

The art above is "No Thief to Blame" by Shinique Smith, 2007-08, and is a mixed media installation (fabric, cardboard, carpet, paper, ink, spray paint, used clothing, found objects, and collage). You can see details of the installation here.