Terri Windling's Blog, page 235
November 2, 2011
Reflections on the Muse, 2
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot in a letter to Camille Pissarro:
"Go to the country - The muse is in the woods."
Above: "A Walk in the Woods" by Alan Lee; and Tilly pays a visit to a Tree Elder in the woods behind the studio.
November 1, 2011
Reflections on the Muse
"The Muses love the morning." - Thomas Fuller
That's certainly true of mine.
"I have a promiscuous muse. My muse wants to own every color, work in many media, and in numerous genre." - Mary Klotz
That's also true of mine -- sometimes to my despair, and sometimes to my delight.
"Often the Muse will not respond to direct and logical requests. She must be lured in with the playful and gentle." -- Jill Badonsky
Indeed. As Kath Langrish said in a previous comment: "It's not a slave, not a servant, it's more like trying to coax a wild thing out of the woods 'to take bread from your hand' - requiring patience, attention, gentleness and a sense of awe." Yes. Especially the awe.
"Muses work all day long and then at night get together and dance." - Edgar Degas
A thoroughly delightful idea...and Degas would know.
Above: The studio in the morning light; "The Fairies Do Exquisite Dancing" by Arthur Rackham; and a portrait of a studio muse of the canine kind (who may indeed dance at night when no one is looking).
October 31, 2011
A new day
"We only truly appreciate the miracle of a sunrise if we have waited in the darkness."
Indeed. And that old chestnut is true of course, on so many levels: creative, intellectual, physical, spiritual, political, trans-personal, trans-species-onal (okay, I made up that word; what I mean is our relationships with animals, birds and other nonhuman beings), etc. etc., etc.. Every morning, as nature renews herself, I'm reminded that, in our personal and creative lives, new beginnings are not only possible, but that change and renewal is expected of us, coded into our very make-up and supported by every breath of life around us.
Above: The sunrise from the hill behind my studio, looking out toward Meldon Mill and the open moor in the far distance. Tilly sits in our favorite sunrise-watching spot, with my Liberty shawl and usual thermos of strong Italian coffee on the bench behind her.
October 30, 2011
Happy Hallowe'en
It's a potent time of year, a week of mythic significance in traditional calendars: All Hallow's Eve and Samhain (October 31), The Days of the Dead (November 1 - 4), and All Souls Day (November 2)...the time, according to folklore and myth, when the borders between the worlds grow thin, transparent, and permeable; when the dead return, and faeries ride the hills, and the twilight shimmers with ancestral magic.
In previous posts, we've talked about myths of descent and ascent in relation to creativity, and nature's cycles of death and rebirth -- an appropriate discussion on the eve of Samhain, the Celtic turning of the year. For more on this theme, have a look at the "Death & Rebirth" issue of The Journal of Mythic Arts (2006) -- which includes Jane Yolen's gorgeous story "Godmother Death, a link to Veronica Schanoes' equally gorgeous story, "How to Bring Someone Back from the Dead," and some beautiful poetry steeped in the myth and folklore of the season.
Images above: "Twilight" by Brian Froud (from The Land of Froud, 1977), "Standing Stones on Dartmoor" by Helen Mason, and "Spinsters' Rock," the remains of a Neolithic burial chamber in nearby Drewsteignton.
Tune for a Monday Morning
In honor of the season: "All Souls Night" by Canadian singer/songwriter Loreena McKennitt, performed live in Grenada, Spain. More information on McKennitt and her work can be found in this previous post.
October 28, 2011
Friday's Recommendations:
* Howard & Rex at John Barleycorn have now posted Part II of their "Around the Table" chat with illustrator & film designer Alan Lee -- discussing landscape, art mediums, the storytelling aspects of tango, and more. It's a great conversation...and I'd like to ask your help in spreading the word to let people know about it. There are a lot of Alan Lee fans out there who might never stumble across it otherwise.
(There are two more good "Around the Table" chats coming up, by the way: with Goblin Fruit's Amal El-Mohtar in November, and with Brian & Wendy Froud in December.)
The drawing above is by Alan, created for We Are All Born Free: the universal declaration of human rights, illustrated for children, published by Frances Lincoln & Amnesty International.
* Speaking of art and politics, I recommend OccupyWriters.com, featuring writers in support of the Occupy movements world-wide (of which I am one); Matthew Battles' short article, "Tactical Utopia," on the role of books and libraries in social revolution; and a video of Elif Shafak (the Turkish author of such amazing novels as The Mystic, Mirrors of the City, and The Flea Palace) discussing The Politics of Fiction.
* At RavenWood Forest, Valerianna Claff continues the "Moveable Feast' conversation on creative burn-out and nature's cycles: "As people around me speak their dread of the coming cold and the growing dark," she says, "I sink into my roots, release summer's fire through my fingertips, and begin the composting of the year. Dreaming into the dark, I tap the ancient well of blood-wisdom. In the spring, dreams will rise up through my veins like the sweet sap of a sugar maple."
And at Amused Grace, Thalia Took picks up the thread of the conversation: "My daimon, my Muse, has disappeared," she writes. "Now, understand, I mean that perhaps rather more literally than most artists do when they speak of their Muse. I mean that friend of mine, that spirit guide or whatever he is, the one I could See clear as day, who was always there, has become absent. I do not believe for a minute that he is actually gone, mind you, but on my end I can't see him at all. I don't miss him. That disturbs me, very much. It is like I am forgetting to remember something very important, but my brain is carrying on as if nothing at all is wrong, as if this surface world is the real world and that life is just fine when it lacks richness and depth."
Previous posts on this topic: Erzebet YellowBoy Carr, me, Deborah Biancotti, Christina Cairns, and Joel Le Blanc. (If I've missed any others, let me know.) Other "Moveable Feasts" topics can be found here.
* While looking for something else entirely, I happened to come across a fascinating interview with Robertson Davies, discussing his life, fiction, and creative process (from The Paris Review, 1986): "I do know the story when I begin," says Davies, "but I don't know how it's going to end. I know about two-thirds of it, and then the end emerges as I go on. I shrink from saying this, but I've agreed to come here and talk about it, and it's true: I hear the story, I am told the story, I record the story. I don't pretend that some remarkable person somewere else is whispering in my ear, or that a beautiful lady in a diaphanous garment is telling me what I should write. It is just a part of my own creative process that I am not immediately in touch with and certainly not in full control of. And so the story emerges."
* At the excellent UK children's book blog, An Awfully Big Blog Adventure, Ellen Renner (author of Castle of Shadows) discusses where ideas come from, and Linda Strachan (author of Dead Boy Talking) has an interesting post on creative collaboration. Anne Rooney (author of Off the Rails) wonders who reads writers' blogs (is it just other writers?) and pleas for comments from silent readers. That's a sentiment that many bloggers can sympathize with -- so if you follow any of the links here today, please consider leaving comments (even short ones) to let blog writers know that their efforts are appreciated. (And I admit it, I'm usually guilty of being a silent reader too.)
* Katherine Langrish (author of West of the Moon) continues her discussion of mystical journeys in myth and legend at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles.
* Neil Gaiman discusses his new audio book line, "Neil Gaiman Presents," in his online Journal. I'm pleased about this, as it will bring new attention to some very worthy books. Good going, Neil!
* Stephanie Piña discusses the color green in Pre-Raphaelite paintings at the Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood blog. The post was inpired by Piña's reading of Elizabeth Hand's brilliant novel Mortal Love. (If you're a Pre-Raph fan and you haven't read Liz's book, I have just three words for you: order it immediately.)
* Theodora Goss displays the gorgeous Pre-Raphaelite-inspired design of her new book, The Thorn and the Blossom, and discusses how the book was written, on her writing blog.
* David Wyatt demonstrates the process of creating his cover to The Ballad of Old Goat and Heron, from sketches to finished art, on his illustration blog Posterous.
* MJ Létourneau discusses her tumblr, printed-ink, in a post on the End of March blog -- featuring the printed word presented as art. (I was tickled to find my own words included in the post.) Alas, I can't seem to load printed-ink itself on my computer (perhaps you'll have better luck than me), but the examples displayed on End of March are intriguing.
* And a few last, random lovely things: Donna Q.'s fairy tale poem,"The Way the Wolf Woos," at Enchanted Spirit: Lens and Pen; the re-birth of Jen Parrish's studio (hooray!) at Parrish Relics; the magical little bowls Julianna Swaney has created in collaboration with Paloma's Nest, displayed at Oh my Cavalier...as well as her Weekend Deer paintings, one of which is pictured below.
Have a good weekend.
October 26, 2011
Alchemizing life into art
"My work is emotionally autobiographical. It has no relationship to the actual events of my life, but it reflects the emotional currents of my life." - Tennessee Williams
"All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster's autobiography." - Federico Fellini
____________________________________________________________________
photograph by Carol Amos
October 25, 2011
Telling their stories
"Writers write because they cannot allow the characters that inhabit them to suffocate them. These characters want to get out, to breathe fresh air and partake of the wine of friendship; were they to remain locked in, they would forcibly break down the walls. It is they who force the writer to tell their stories." - Elie Weisel
________________________________________________________________________
unicorn mask by Katy Marchant, Daughters of Elvin
October 24, 2011
The job of a storyteller
"I write at eighty-five for the same reasons that impelled me to write at forty-five; I was born with a passionate desire to communicate, to organize experience, to tell tales that dramatize the adventures which readers might have had. I have been that ancient man who sat by the campfire at night and regaled the hunters with imaginative recitations about their prowess. The job of an apple tree is to bear apples. The job of a storyteller is to tell stories, and I have concentrated on that obligation." - James Michner
Three Recommendations:
* Delia Sherman talks about her new YA novel The Freedom Maze in a podcast over on the Small Beer Press website, chatting about "her southern roots and the nature of dreams." It's a terrific little podcast -- and the book in question, a time-travel fantasy set in Louisiana, is quite simply one of the best YA novels I've read in years.
* Stephen Fry discusses the subject of storytelling in Episode 5 of Fry's Planet Word over on BBC Two. Fry asks "what makes a good story and why some writers just do it better. He reveals what stories make him shiver with joy or, conversely, shudder with horror. From Homer's epic to Joyce's modern-day reinvention with Ulysses, from taking in Shakespeare, PG Wodehouse, Tolkien, Orwell, Auden, Bob Dylan and the even the mangled web of words that became known as Birtspeak, Stephen uncovers why certain words can make us laugh, cry or tear our hair out." Watch this soon, as it will be online only until November 1.
* Christina Cairns continues the discussion on "creative burn-out" in her excellent new post "Decending into the underworld, the labyrinth, the abyss" on A Mermaid in the Attic.
Terri Windling's Blog
- Terri Windling's profile
- 707 followers
