הרבה זמן לא העליתי כאן פוסט, מכיוון שהייתי עסוקה בעבודה על פרויקט גדול לתערוכה לשבוע האיור בתל אביב יחד עם עוד 7 מאיירות ואמניות מוכשרות מאוד. ניתן לראות את תהליך העבודה של כולן כאן
I wanted to share some of my working process on the project for this exhibition and to start with story of the fairy tale the works in the exhibition are based on. Each of the illustrators chose a character from the story and drew the story from his/her point of view. Adding her input and interpretation to the story. so here is the story:
From the book: The Turnip Princess and
Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales-
Franz Xaver von Schonwerth
THE RED SILK RIBBON
Schönwerth’s note:
Mermaids are highly evolved female creatures that dwell in the water but are
not restricted to living there. They are able to take on human form partially
or entirely and to become radiantly beautiful women. They long for the love of
handsome men and lure them down to the watery depths, or they go on land and
spend time with them there. Mermaids seek youth, beauty, and a long life
through the love of mortals.
A
fisherman was working for a count, a man who paid him well, for he was good at
bringing in a nice haul. But one day his luck ran out, and the count was so
dissatisfied with him that he let him go. For a time, the fisherman lived from
his savings, but soon he had nothing left. He tried his luck a few more times,
but to no avail, and he sat in his boat, weeping bitter tears. Suddenly a
beautiful mermaid emerged from the water. “Why are you weeping?” she asked, and
he explained why he was so distraught. “I’ll help you out, but only if you
promise to give me what you do not know is in your house. I was the one who
sent fish to you in the first place, and I’m also the one who kept them away
from you.” The fisherman made the promise, and right away he had another huge
haul of fish. He returned home cheerfully. When he told his wife the price he
had paid for the catch, her face fell. She was carrying a child, which he did
not yet know about. But the two consoled themselves with the thought that they
would baptize the child. The fisherman’s luck was back, and once again he
caught the best fish in his nets. He brought them to the count, who took him
back in his service.
At
the appointed time, a son was born, and he was called Lucas. He was strong in
body and spirit, and it was decided that he would take holy orders. But once he
had finished with his training, he could not hold his first mass, for he
belonged to the mermaid. And so he gave up his studies to become a cooper and
went on the road.
There he encountered some animals quarreling
over the carcass of a horse. They couldn’t decide how to divide it up. There
was a bear there, a fox, a falcon, and an ant. They asked him to figure out how
to divide things up. Lucas threw the hindquarters and front legs to the bear,
who had no reason to complain, and he gave the back to the fox, the innards to
the falcon, and the head to the ant. Then off he went. The bear thought it was
not fair to let Lucas leave without showing some gratitude, and he ordered the
fox to call him back. The grateful animals granted him the power to turn into
their shapes whenever he wanted. Lucas burst out laughing and then went on his
way. While he was walking he noticed a bunch of partridges picking at some
grain. To test the gift he had been given, he decided to turn himself into a
fox. He became one in an instant and caught as many partridges as he could
carry. He took them with him to the next city and had them roasted at the inn.
Around the same time, four men came into the
inn, sat down, and began playing cards and betting. Lucas was lying on a bed of
straw behind the oven, and he noticed that one of the men already had a big
pile of cash in front of him. He turned himself into an ant and crawled under
the table. Then he turned himself into a bear, stood up, and knocked the table
over with all the coins still on it. He scared the men so badly that they
hightailed it out of there. He returned to his human form, gathered up the
coins, lay down on the straw, and went to sleep. In the morning he paid his
bill and left.
Lucas reached a town where everyone was
in mourning. A black flag with a skull on it was waving from a tower. He
started looking for a place to stay and asked the innkeeper what had happened.
It turned out that the king had three daughters who were ready to be married.
They were all beautiful and looked so much alike that people couldn’t tell them
apart. But the king had decided that the middle child would be his heir.
“‘Whoever wants to inherit my kingdom has to guess which one she is.’ That’s
what he is demanding. And if you don’t guess the right one, you will be executed.
So many men have already died that we are all in mourning,” the innkeeper
explained. Lucas went over to the castle and looked in the garden, which was
surrounded by a deep moat, and saw the princesses taking a walk. He turned
himself into a falcon and flew from one tree to the next. He caught the
attention of the princesses, and let himself be captured by one of them. He
landed on her hand, and she took him up to her bedroom, where he was given a
golden perch.
While she was sleeping, Lucas turned back to his
human shape, but now he was wearing beautiful, costly garments. He took the
princess’s hand, and she woke up. He explained that he had been the bird and
that he loved her. Frightened to death at first by the strange man and his
words, the princess soon took a liking to him and admitted that she was the
middle sister. She gave him her ring and showed him a red silk ribbon that she
was going to wrap around the middle finger of her right hand. That was how he
would recognize her when the time came to identify the middle princess. The
princess opened her window and the falcon flew away.
The stranger came the next morning to see
the king and to win the hand of the middle daughter. The king and his entire
retinue felt pity for the young man. He was so handsome and charming that they
were hoping to discourage him from the perilous undertaking. But Lucas was
determined, and he was summoned to step into the hall where the three daughters
were waiting. The executioner was already there, sharp sword in hand. Lucas was
taken to the three sisters. One of them stepped forward just a tiny bit, and
she was wearing the red ribbon around her finger. He declared her to be the
middle princess, and he was right. Everyone at the court and in town was
delighted. The king had been regretting his vow for a long time and was
distressed by the bloody end taken by innocent suitors. He was happy to give
the hand of his daughter to a successful suitor. The two lived happily for many
years.
One day Lucas went out hunting. His wife tried
to keep him from going, for she had felt some kind of dark premonition. But he
paid no attention. It was a hot day, and he was thirsty after trying to hunt
down a deer. He forgot all about his mother’s warnings to stay away from water.
He rode ahead of the others and discovered a spring. Just as he was bending
over and reaching into the water with his hand, a mermaid grabbed him and
pulled him down with her. “I paid a high price for you,” she said.
The princess learned the sad news. She did not
hesitate to rush over to the stream to try to find her husband. She sat down by
the riverbank and began weeping. The mermaid emerged from the water and
comforted her by telling her that her husband was living comfortably down
below. The princess said she would feel better if she could just take a look at
her husband, and she offered the golden comb in her hair in exchange. The
mermaid obliged and lifted Lucas’s head out of the water, just high enough so
that his wife could see his eyes. The princess then offered her ring in
addition, and her husband was lifted out of the water up to his torso. Then she
offered the golden slipper on her foot. The mermaid let Lucas stand on his
wife’s hand—and, just imagine, he turned into a falcon and was there right next
to his wife. The mermaid dove deep down, and the waters began to seethe and
boil. She emerged and threw a handful of blue sand into the princess’s face,
and the princess turned instantly into a dragon.
The kingdom was in trouble once again.
The king offered half his wealth to anyone who could come to his aid. An
ancient magician appeared and promised to help as long as the princess could
endure the procedure. He had three ovens built and heated them up until each
was hotter than the next. He pushed the dragon into one and took it out again.
Its skin was soft, and he cooled it down with water. When he put the dragon
into the second oven, its skin split open, and when he pushed it into the third
oven, Lucas had to hide because the weeping and wailing was so heart-wrenching.
The princess emerged naked from the oven, and Lucas threw his cape around her
and led her home triumphantly. They lived happily together, and they were
carefree now that the mermaid no longer had any claim to them.
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