Tuesday 26 February 2013

she spent her nights in the forest


"she spent her nights in the forest, returning with wild eyes and flowers in her hair."  


just popping in for a quick post.  
my latest collage.  

Thursday 21 February 2013

wings of story

An early memory.  I’m sitting cross legged in the gym of my primary school during an assembly.  As usual, I’m daydreaming.  In this daydream, wings sprout from my back and I rise above the heads of the other children and the teachers.  A hole opens in the roof and I fly up and off into the waiting sky, a euphoric grin on my face.  

Another memory.  Although living in the middle of a big city, I regularly seek out, with a friend, those magical places behind a row of garages where cloaking ivy grows and where old scraps of paper we find became treasure maps; scratches in dilapidated fences become secret symbols; and discarded junk becomes treasure.  

The two things I desired at that time were escape and adventure.  When my imagination wasn't enough on its own, I turned to books to find them.  The first books that I can *remember* reading are: The Secret Garden, The Hobbit, and The Wind in the Willows.  

They all contain dragons.  Or you might even say that they are dragons.  

If asked to describe a dragon, one of the first things I’d mention are its wings; wings which allow for escape and exploration.  What do dragons do?  They they terrify, they fascinate, they guard a rich and valuable hoard of human treasure.   

Dragons, for me, can come in the shape of a terrible winged monster; or of a hidden garden awaiting discovery by a lonely young girl; or of a mole and water-rat having adventures along the river bank.  

Dragons, for me, are story.  


*this post is in response to Terri Windling's latest Moveable Feast "The Desire for Dragons" over at her blog Myth & Moor.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

faerie dances

Tried to write a post. 
Didn't work.
Been that sort of a week.  
And it's only Tuesday.
Oy.

Here's my latest collage.


"They knew the steps to all the faerie dances."