Fairy Tale Airigami

If you live anywhere near Rochester, New York, there is a fun exhibit opening tonight. From Balloon art takes a fairy tale twist:

Balloon artist Larry Moss and his design partner, Kelly Cheatle, are making final touches today on their The Fine Art of Airigami exhibit at the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, 277 N. Goodman St. The sculptures are all inspired by fairy tales and nursery rhymes. The exhibit’s opening reception, from 5 to 8 p.m., is part of First Friday Rochester, a monthly citywide gallery hop.

For the rest of us, we can see 10 images at the Airigami website. I've shared a few here. What fun this is and I haven't seen anything quite like it before. From the website:

Once Upon a Time, created by Larry Moss and Kelly Cheatle, features all new work inspired by childhood memory, with fantasy “snapshots” from classic children’s stories, fairy tales and nursery rhymes. The flatwork – which is a combination of balloon sculpture, photography and illustration – will surround a live balloon sculpture installation. The show’s title also plays on the temporary nature of their medium.

This final image is from the article linked above and shows what appears to be a shoe (perhaps from There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Show) under construction. Wish I could go see this one in person. The Frist Center needs to get this one here in Nashville or some other gallery.

Kristen Stewart offered the part of Snow White

From Kristen Stewart offered the part of Snow White by Sara Vilkomerson:

Who’s the fairest of them all? We think we know! Sources tell EW that Kristen Stewart has been offered the part of Snow White in Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman, to be directed by Rupert Sanders.

As EW has previously reported, this project has been heating up, with both Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron in “final talks” to play the Huntsman and evil queen, respectively. Stewart has long been at the top of the list (other names mentioned include Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, Felicity Jones, Bella Heathcote, and Elvis granddaughter Riley Keough), and if the deal is finalized, it will be her first post-Twilight project.

Cap o Rushes by Ben Hatke

It is so rare to find illustrations for Cap o Rushes, one of my favorite Cinderella variants, especially in the U.S., that I was thrilled to find this collection by illustrator Ben Hatke on a message board on a completely random side twist to a web search last week. No, these are not from a book and Hatke doesn't describe the circumstances of the project. These have been floating around the web since at least 2007, often with no artist attribution so I wanted to share them here. Hatke has a fascinating blog, too, which documents his new book release, totally unrelated to fairy tales, but hopefully helping at artist make a living, so I want to flog it here, too. It's Zita the Spacegirl, a graphic novel, and one I have to admit hits some of my non-fairy tale related buttons. Hee, the story starts when Zita pushes a big red button, too. Wish it had been around when I was kid.*

 This last one was a concept piece that he didn't include with the final project:

And here's Zita the Spacegirl again. It's been well-reviewed by the usual review sources such as Booklist and School Library Journal. It also has a character named Piper, somewhat inspired by the Pied Piper, so we have a slight folklore influence to merit its inclusion here, too.

And a video for the book:

Zita the Spacegirl: Trailer from Ben Hatke on Vimeo.

* Seriously, I had a hidden stash of Batman comics that I had traded off the neighborhood boys probably with Mork & Mindy trading cards or something. It wasn't because I was forbidden them. My parents wouldn't have cared. In fact, my mom helped me buy a large oversized Batman comic that was more kid friendly several months later. It was more that I thought they were for boys and I was somehow strange to prefer them to Barbies and such. I was six or seven and it took a few more years to discover Nancy Drew who finally gave me a literary heroine outlet that wasn't related to the rarely seen Wonder Woman or Charlie's Angels on tv who I realized were oversexualized even if I didn't understand that term or its full import yet. Thus Sabrina was my favorite Angel. My parents were pretty strict about the tv viewing at that age, more about the quantity as well as some of the quality. In other words, at age seven I probably would have worn out a copy of Zita the Spacegirl. There are many more options today, but I would have loved this one all the same.

'Buffy' writers sell Grimm's Fairy Tales pilot to NBC

When I first saw the new headline, I thought this was the same series I'd written about before (Once Upon a Time Coming to ABC) until I investigated further. Nope, different project and I don't know the status of the ABC one.

From 'Buffy' writers sell Grimm's Fairy Tales pilot to NBC by James Hibberd:

NBC has picked up another pilot mixing fantasy with a crime drama: The network has greenlit Grimm, described as a “dark but fantastical cop drama about a world in which characters inspired by Grimm’s Fairy Tales exist.” (Gotta love mining expired copyrights in the public domain!).

The project is from Jim Kouf (Angel) and David Greenwalt (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), with executive producers Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner.

So the real question is are you more interested in a series from the producers of Lost or one by the writers for Buffy and Angel?

And my question is: Will we actually see two fairy tale based series on two different networks? Hmmmm....

East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Rosie Lauren Smith

This is an illustration for East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Rosie Lauren Smith. The Arthur Rackham and Tasha Tudor influences are perhaps the most apparent. It also reminds me a little of Trina Schart Hyman. What I love the most about it is the autumn setting which appears to be the artist's favorite season. So many of the illustrations of the heroine riding the polar bear offer a winter setting. You can see more of Smith's art on DeviantArt (there's a lot of faeries and such) and she also has a blog.

Fairy Tales, Controversy, and 100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader

 

Well, the blogosphere is lit up tonight with the controversy over Bitch Magazine's removal of titles from their 100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader. First, let me make clear that I'm not posting here to jump onto any bandwagon. This isn't the forum for that although I welcome your comments if you want to comment on that aspect. I'm approaching this post from the SurLaLune viewpoint which is, wow, two of the three removed titles are fairy tale retellings. And they weren't removed for that reason either. I'm just, well, I don't know the emotion, but fascinated is the overwhelming feeling at this point. From the images above you can see that the removed titles are Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce and Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. Yes, our January SurLaLune Book Club Pick was removed from the list.

Here's the reasons for their removals by Ashley McAllister:

A couple of us at the office read and re-read Sisters Red, Tender Morsels and Living Dead Girl this weekend. We’ve decided to remove these books from the list— Sisters Red because of the victim-blaming scene that was discussed earlier in this post, Tender Morsels because of the way that the book validates (by failing to critique or discuss) characters who use rape as an act of vengeance, and Living Dead Girl because of its triggering nature. We still feel that these books have merit and would not hesitate to recommend them in certain instances, but we don’t feel comfortable keeping them on this particular list.

We’ve replaced these books with Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley and Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden. Thanks to several commenters who pointed out the need to include these excellent books on our list. I’m excited to add a few more rad girls to our list and I can’t say how happy I am to know that there are WAY more than 100 young adult books out there that tackle sexism, racism, homophobia, etc… while presenting us with amazing young adult characters. Young adult lit has come a long way. We’re really excited to keep talking about feminist-friendly YA books on the blog.

Count me fascinated that fairy tales once again have found a way to be in the middle of a controversy. They are lovely, malleable creatures aren't they?

And, no, they weren't the only fairy tale retellings or at least fairy tale influenced novels on the original list either. (I say original because it may change more as authors request their titles to be removed out of protest of the changes.) Here were the other three on the list, some rather surprising. So there were five, now there are three.

Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Dorian Cirrone

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Ash by Malinda Lo

And I was fascinated that The Blue Sword was used to replace the removed titles and not McKinley's Deerskin instead. (Which would have at least replaced a fairy tale with a fairy tale, smile.) Deerskin seems a better fit for the original list either way. There is even a comment on the page supporting Deerskin so I wasn't the only one to think this.

And, yikes, there was a comment on the Bitch Magazine page that called LRRH a sexist fairy tale. Ouch. I would love to argue with that, but will simply end this post for now.

Bargain Book: Instructions by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess

Instructions by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Charles Vess is currently priced $6.00 in hardcover, 60% off the $14.99 list price. This is a picture book and makes a great gift book to a child or adult. I've noticed it's been popular as a graduation gift, too, although we're not anywhere near any graduation times right now.

Either way, I have been posting many ebook bargains recently and thought I should share a printed edition of something fairy tale related, too. Bargain book prices on Amazon tend to be mercurial, limited to a certain amount of inventory and then gone. Then the book remains available as a regularly priced book. In other words, this price may stay available for a few more hours or a few more weeks, one can never be sure.

Free Book for Kindle: Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble

Dreaming Anastasia by Joy Preble is free in the Kindle edition today to promote Preble's new book, Haunted, in the same series. The paperback edition is $9.99. I'm sharing this because the book includes  Baba Yaga as a major plot point.

Book description:

What really happened to Anastasia Romanov?

Anastasia Romanov thought she would never feel more alone than when the gunfire started and her family began to fall around her. Surely the bullets would come for her next. But they didn't. Instead, two gnarled old hands reached for her. When she wakes up she discovers that she is in the ancient hut of the witch Baba Yaga, and that some things are worse than being dead.

In modern-day Chicago, Anne doesn't know much about Russian history. She is more concerned about getting into a good college—until the dreams start. She is somewhere else. She is someone else. And she is sharing a small room with a very old woman. The vivid dreams startle her, but not until a handsome stranger offers to explain them does she realize her life is going to change forever. She is the only one who can save Anastasia. But, Anastasia is having her own dreams…

So this one might be of interest to those of you interested in the Romanovs and/or Baba Yaga. After all, it's free! As always, you don't have to have a Kindle to read a Kindle book, you can load the free software on your PC, Mac, smart phone and other devices. If you buy the book, it stays in your permanent library whether you download it to a device right away or not.

Barbe-Bleue illustrated by Maurizio Quarello

Barbe-Bleue illustrated by Maurizio Quarello is not available in English, but in French. I would be rather shocked to see an English language picture book of Bluebeard these days, to be perfectly honest. But this is so beautiful and just so very European, too. I keep debating featuring foreign editions of fairy tales but the images are so hard to acquire.

I had seen this cover before on Amazon.fr but not any of the interior images until the book was featured last week on a favorite blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Cristiana Clerici’s International Spotlight #4: Maurizio Quarello’s take on Bluebeard. Here's an excerpt, but click through to read it all as well as see the images discussed which I am not sharing here:

Quarello uses cinematographic techniques with enviable skill. He masters them with ease, as if his job were film director and not illustrator. From shot and reverse shot, to zoom, to image pause, it seems his illustrations are not meant to stop with the page’s boundaries, as if they wanted to drag us into the whirlpool of events. And this is exactly what happens.

His paintings strongly recall Hopper and the Romantics’ atmospheres: from the colour palette he chooses, to the polished density of his brush strokes, to his way of playing with lights and shades, to the portrayed subjects. The unexpected framings, always astounding, characterize his images.

Okay, I have to share one more image, because I love it. It is deliciously cinematical and gives me a new vision of Bluebeard. All of the images make me think of an old B&W movie, I can see the illustrations in B&W with only the blue beard adding color, too, as the action moves. I wouldn't change a thing, mind you, but I found my brain grayscaling the images.

You can visit Quarello's website where there are other images from Barbe-Bleue not featured on the other blog.