Terri Windling's Blog, page 241

I'm in the middle of dealing with some time-consumin...

I'm in the middle of dealing with some time-consuming personal matters, so I'll be posting just photos (and favorite quotes) until I can return to this blog properly. Here is today's quote:

"We rely upon the poets, the philosophers, and the playwrights to articulate what most of us can only feel, in joy and sorrow. They illuminate the thoughts for which we only grope; they give us the strength and balm we cannot find in ourselves. Whenever I feel my courage wavering I rush to them. They will give me the wisdom of acceptance, the will and resilience to push on."  - Helen Hayes

So true.

Clouds Over the River Fields

I'm in the middle of dealing with some time-consuming personal matters, so I'll be posting just photos (and favorite quotes) until I can return to this blog properly. Here is today's quote:

"We rely upon the poets, the philosophers, and the playwrights to articulate what most of us can only feel, in joy and sorrow. They illuminate the thoughts for which we only grope; they give us the strength and balm we cannot find in ourselves. Whenever I feel my courage wavering I rush to them. They will give me the wisdom of acceptance, the will and resilience to push on."  - Helen Hayes

So true.

Saving the world, one piece of art at a time

I'm back more-or-less, but dealing with some time-consuming personal matters, so it may be a little while longer before I can return to this blog. Thanks for your patience.

In the meantime, it's Friday, so there's another postcard from Howard & Rex over on John Barleycorn -- and I know they have some good things planned for the weeks ahead. Also, check out the video above about the See No Evil Project in Bristol (a West Country city just north of us), where a bleak and dangerous neighborhood has been transformed by street artists from around the globe. Elen Caldecott has a nice post about the project over on An Awfully Big Blog Aventure; and the project's website is here.

Bravo to everyone involved in See No Evil. I truly do believe art can save the world.

Flying away....

I'm going to be away for the next two weeks, and then back again on August 29.

In the mean time, if you find yourself missing your daily slice
of Dartmoor, there are lots of other folks in the village doing interesting work. Follow these links to take a neighborhood stroll....

Nick Baker (naturalist/writer)

Elizabeth-Jane Baldry (harpist/composer/filmmaker)

Danielle Barlow: Notes from the Rookery (mythic artist)

Brian & Wendy Froud (mythic painter & sculptor/writer)

Alan Lee (mythic artist/film designer)

Marja Lee Kruyt (mythic artist/harpist)

Virginia Lee (mythic artist)

Yuli Somme (textile artist)

Rima Staines & Tom Hirons (mythic artists/writers)

William Todd-Jones (puppeteer/dramatist)

David Wyatt (mythic artist/musician)

Daughters Elvin (medieval music & dance)

The Chagford Filmmaking Group
(their new website is absolutely enchanting)

...and go here for more.

(For photo titles, place your curser over the images.)

Friday recommendations:

 Just a few before I fly away:

* Lev Grossman defends fantasy literature in The Wall Street Journal. It's sad that the genre still needs defending (sigh), but  he does a very good job of it. And not coincidently, Grossman's own fantasy book, The Magicians, is a wonderful read. (Link via Ellen Kushner.)

* Bret Anthony Johnson contradicts the standard advice and tells writing students: "Don't write what you know," in a thought-provoking, beautiful article for The Atlantic. 

* Steve Silberman writes movingly of the last days of the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, in Long Shot Magazine.

* Andy Lechter revisits some excellent, myth-steeped books during his Alan Garner Season, and posts one of my favorite Garner quotes.

* Christina Cairns shares an intriguing work in progress at A Mermaid in the Attic.

* Check out Keira Rathbone's "Typewriter Art" at My Love for You (via Gwenda Bond).

* Check out today's postcard from those crazy characters at John Barleycorn.

* And finally, I love this post by YA author Sarah Rees Brennan: "Ladies, Don't Let Anyone Tell You You're Not Awesome," on her LiveJournal page. (The link came via Holly Black, from a good post of her own.)

Pathways through the trees

"Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree which does not force its sap and stands confidence in the storms of spring without fear that after them may come no summer."   - Rainer Maria Rilke

"A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease."  - John Muir

"In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things. In physical terms, I move through them; yet in metaphysical ones, they seem to move through me."  - John Fowles

"It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit."   - Robert Louis Stevenson

"God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, 'Ah!' "  - Joseph Campbell

"And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything."  - William Shakespeare

"Going to the woods is going home."  - John Muir

On Your Desk

Today's desk comes from Karen Squire, who lives just up the road in the city of Exeter. "I noticed that you still sometimes run posts about people's workspaces and working methods," she writes, "and as mine have changed quite significantly since the last time I sent a photo for the "On Your Desk" series, I thought I'd update you...

"I have moved house and studio since Christmas; I'm still living in good old Exeter though, and my new workspace is at EVA Studios on the outskirts of the city. There is a lovely community feel to the place, it reminds me a little bit of art college! I've also started my own blog, Two Little Pigs, which I try to update as often as I can -- but I'd much rather be painting than scanning and formatting pictures. (I'm sure you can appreciate that!)

"I've very recently signed up with an illustration agency specialising in children's books, so hopefully at some point in the future my work may make it into print. I've certainly been getting a wriggle-on in the past few months and hope to spend the rest of the year progressing further still!"

The charming illustrations here are by Karen. Follow the blog link above to see more.

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All readers of this blog are welcome to contribute to the "On Your Desk" series. You'll find more information (and the address where you should send your photo) in the first post of the series, and you can view the full series here.

Color fields

"The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color. Our entire being is nourished by it."  - Hans Hoffman

"Colors are light's suffering and joy."  - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Color is all. When color is right, form is right. Color is everything, color is vibration like music; everything is vibration."  - Marc Chagall

"Color which, like music, is a matter of vibrations, reaches what is most general and therefore most indefinable in nature: its inner power."  - Paul Gauguin

"I found I could say things with color and shapes I couldn't say in any other way -- things I had no words for."  - Georgia O'Keeffe

"Color has got me. I no longer need to chase after it. It has got me for ever. I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour."  - Paul Klee

Tunes for a Monday Morning

Above: Natalie Merchant sings "Crazy Man Michael" at the 2010 Cambridge Folk Festival. The song, of course, comes from Fairport Convention's ground-breaking "electric folk" album Liege & Lief (1969), where it was originally sung by the late, great Sandy Denny. The song's fairy tale lyrics (available here) are by Dave Swarbrick and Richard Thompson.

I've been listening to Liege & Lief and a number of other classic British folk albums recently, while reading Rob Young's new book, Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music. This fat, fascinating volume documents the history of British folk in the 20th century, including a large section devoted to the influential bands of the '60s / '70s -- Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Steeleye Span, The Albion Country Band, The Incredible String Band, etc. etc. -- with information ranging from insights of music scholarship and historical context to pure gossip about who was sleeping with/living with/working with/feuding with whom. Although Young occasionally rambles (I'm not sure the book needed to be quite as fat as it is), at least it does so out of an endearing enthusiasm for the subject. I've been thoroughly engrossed by Electric Eden, and recommend it highly to anyone likewise interested in the British folk music scene.

Below is a video filmed back in the day: Pentangle performing "Hunting Song" on the BBC, circa 1970, with vocals by Jacqui McShee and Bert Jansch. The second guitarist (who was Jansch's flat-mate during those years) is the legendary John Renbourn.

Friday recommendations:

The gorgeously atmospheric video above is the new trailer for Kathrine Langrish's novel Dark Angels (published in the US as The Shadow Hunt): an historical faery fantasy set in the hills of medieval Wales. I absolutely adore this YA novel, and want it to be far better known that it currently is outside the UK -- so please check out the trailer, which will surely whet your appetitie for the book if you haven't read it already. (I think the US cover makes the novel look like it might be just for kids, without adult appeal too -- and this is certainly not the case!!!!) Also, Kath is currently running a contest to give away three signed copies of the book. You'll find the details over on her blog, Seven Miles of Steel Thistles. Please spread the word!

This other week's magpie gleanings:

* Fairy tale scholar Helen Pilinovsky discusses princesses in fairy tales, fantasy, and film in Fantasy Magazine.

* Alex Ross discusses Oscar Wilde's "Dorian Gray" in The New Yorker.

* Susan Goodman discusses "Henry James and the American Idea" in Humanities Magazine.

* Stephen J. Gertz discusses English illustrator Warwick Goble (1862-1943) at Booktryst: A Nest for Book Lovers. (via Michelle in NYC)

* Dianne Hofmeyr discusses the "sand art" of Andrew van der Merwe at An Awfully Big Blog Adventure.

* Robert Parry discusses Stunner: The Rise and Fall of Fanny Cornforth, a new biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's model and mistress, by Kristy Stonell Walker. (I gather the book is self-published and may not be entirely professionally produced, but it looks interesting nonetheless.)

* Fiction/poetry recommendations: "White Lines on a Green Field," a Trickster tale by Catherynne M. Valente at Subterranean Press; and Issue 7 of Jabberwocky, featuring fox tricksters, daemon lovers, and more (edited by Sean Wallace and Erzebet YellowBoy).

* Art recommendation: Don't miss David Wyatt's "Comfort in Quilting,"   which is a thoroughly enchanting picture of a mutual friend here in the village, posed with her dog Ozzie (a great pal of Tilly's), against a background of William Morris fabrics and wallpaper. The painting is part of David's "Local Characters" series, and like all the others in the series, it's simply gorgeous. Also, check out the "Craftydermer" exhibition profiled in The Guardian. ("Mr. Fox" by Emma Cocker is particularly charming.)

* Video recommendation this week (in addition to the trailer above): a timelapse film of an acorn turning into an oak tree on the New Scientist site. The magic of nature indeed.

* And a few last bits & pieces: Amal El-Mohtar has a lyrical little post on reading Bordertown in uncertain weather at Voices on the Midnight Air. Howard & Rex send a postcard from their holiday travels on John Barleycorn. And there's a really lovely review of the French edition of my novel The Wood Wife,  by Clémence Fournerie, at the Fees Divers site (for those of you who read French).

* Oh, wait, one more! I've recently been introduced to The Black Letters, a terrific literary blog "celebrating all aspects of bibliophilia, with a slant towards speculative fiction," written by "ravening bibliophiles" Kakaner and Emera. I particularly love the Booklish: Bibliophile's Kitchen posts, where you can find such delicacies as Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell Black Forest Raven Cake and Matilda Honey Oatmeal Scones. (via Ellen Kushner)

Have a good weekend.