Showing posts with label fairy tale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fairy tale. Show all posts

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Discarded Toys


I play with my rabbit
every day, sometimes twice.
Often, I wish it velveteen,

as real as the smack
of a riding crop
as I rock my mount,
ridden wet, and hard.

Not every toy was meant to be velveteen.
The streams never crossed,
left alone and solitary
in my toy box.

For you, I was only a plaything,
Never meant to be made real.

Bunnies can break.
Your mechanical heart needs winding.

You box me up,
your discarded toy,
that bored you,
displeased you.

My answers were always wrong.
I never learned to tell
the fairy tales quite
the way you wanted.

I'm just another locked toy box,
left out for whoever might want
a broken, discarded plaything,

a rag doll waiting for a new master.

Find it here.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Kintsugi Illusions



I practiced the art of kintsugi.
I wanted to believe in flawed beauty,
that I could repair my cracks,
upgrade my broken bits
with veins of gold.
The paint never dries.

I wrapped the butchery
with gauze and illusion.
Adhering my mask,
hoping for my pound of  pretense
like so many layers of mummified sludge.

Your fisted flesh inside me
scraped my resolve.
My bandages slipped,
exposing my deception.

You manufactured 
the distance between us,
calculating the cost of repairs
for my faulty engineering,
The right angles wronged.

The paint, blighted and bitter,
Pipes had been cut.

I forgot to read the manual.


Find it here.

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Frogged




I wanted the fairy tale
although I don't pretend to be a princess.
I long ago learned to rescue myself.

I passed over so many amphibious suitors,
looking for the one;
neither prince nor knight,
but someone to relish the sunset,
someone real.

I should have recognized the taste
of flies on your lips,
foul and forked.
I spelled eyes to see what wasn't there.

I forgot my feet as your tongue
oozed its sticky words.

Awakening, at last,
to your tongue thrust,
to your slime oozing off my chin.

There are no happy endings.

Find it here.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Just Be



Everything you ever did wrong
you wanted to fix with me, 
your tweaked rerun.
The casting was all wrong.

A bean sprouted from disappointed dreams,
I went off script, losing 
the pink swirls, the tea parties,
and the porcelain dolls.

Your prototype miscarried 
into gothic horror,
tarot card spreads and spirits
calling from the darkness.

My wings didn't sprout.
The tiara never fit.
My shields failed.

Layers of masks;
the paint is peeling.
Alterations and cuts,
the skin doesn't fit.

I struggle to breathe; to cut;
I'm corseted into the wrong role,
robed as an ill favored caricature.

I'm shedding your skin
into something reptilian and sleek.
Dropping the masks,
I still won't wear pink

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Fish and Grace


Inspiration can come from many places: a quote, a poem, a line from a song..

Sometimes inspiration can come from a very dark place.

This piece leaves me feeling very conflicted.  I like the vibrant colors.  It has a sort of fun, surreal, fairy tale, Wonderland-esque feel, but my original impulse in making it is the antithesis of happiness and light.

I have a weakness for Victorian true crime and have been binge watching documentaries on Youtube. Eventually, I stumbled upon the disturbing tale of Albert Fish.

He was a product of the Victorian age of poorly run and brutal orphanages, but the most infamous of his crimes were committed a few decades into the new century.

He brutalized, murdered and ate children.

He was a monster, called the "boogeyman" by one of his almost victims yet, in person, he was very unimposing.

He was the single father to five children whom, reportedly, he took good care of and did not abuse.

Did he love them?  Was he capable of love?

How could a man who could brutalize and murder also be a dedicated father?  

At his trial, he was described as the "Gray Man", a man who appeared a bit of a doddering grandfatherly figure, really, the sort of man you would barely take notice of.

Perhaps that and his choice of the most helpless and innocent of victims is what makes him so disturbingly sinister.  

So, how did I go from horrific child murderer to a toadstool wonderland?

Really, I am as perplexed as you are!

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Escape Never seemed more Urgent and less Likely


A few days ago, I was having an intriguing conversation with some friends about how we, as a species, often explain the unknown.

We blame aliens.

Crop circles?  Must be aliens.

Mysterious ruins?  Must be aliens.

Unexplained lights in the night sky?  Must be aliens.

Disturbing abductions?  Must be aliens.

Not so very long ago, a mere century or two, and we had a very different explanation for such phenomena.

Crop circles?  Mysterious ruins?  
Unexplained lights in the night sky?  
Disturbing abductions?
Must be fairies!

When I started this piece, I started with a fantastic sky.  I had been admiring some antique  fairy tale illustrations of  "East of the Sun, West of the Moon", but I had a vague plan about a charming young girl and her polar bear steed.  As per usual, my art went in a completely different direction.

What happens when Victorian nursery meets Space Invaders meets Fairyland?

Now, you know!

To be accurate, my alien invader is actually an extremely large flying jellyfish, but I have often thought that most science fiction is probably way off when it always portrays alien species as almost all humanoid in style.  

I think that the inexplicable and eerily elegant life under the sea seems a more likely visage for our future alien encounters.  

Of course, I have absolutely no background in science so don't start betting the corn fields on it....

Friday, February 20, 2015

Is it Spring yet?

I haven't had as much time to devote to my art of late as I would like.  I was super pleased to be accepted as an artisan at the Lafayette Farmers and Artisans Market at the Horse Farm and intend to be there the third Saturday of every month for their handmade and artist weekend  (so I will be there tomorrow!)  

Buying the mesh sides for my tent was definitely a wise choice.  I wasn't certain about taking the next step, but if I am going to be doing three art markets a month, I definitely need to bring my best professional artist game with me!

The continued cold days and grey skies of winter are not my favorite.  I don't mind as much when the sky is blue and brilliant, but we don't seem to get enough of those.  I find myself longing for the warmth of spring.

What comes with spring?  

Why, the Easter Bunny of course!  

I shifted through the photographs I took of the Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center the last time I was out there and located what seemed like the perfect image of one of my Voodoo Goblin bunnies.  

 I love combining the fairy tale adorableness of the little girl with something just a little creepy.  Bunnies, especially stuffed toy bunnies, really just should not be so large!




 I've made some progress with some of the pieces for my Whitechapel series, but they aren't quite finished yet.  I think I may have one more image of Jack that I want to finish and then I can lay those ghosts to rest.

Miriam Angel still lingers in my mind so I will be returning to that series after I finish with Jack.  

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

My Checkered Past - Dance Challenge at 3Muses



If you ask about my checkered past,
I must confess that my secrets 
are many, sordid, and would make
a sane woman blush.

I danced my way through my youth
like so many half remembered dreams
of immortality and immorality,
but I looked ever so fabulous
while I did it!

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Travel via Bathtub


Twas a little girl
who was adventure bound
she pushed her tub into the sea
and changed her whole world
as soon as she saw what lay beneath!

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Under Lock and Key


"I've spent all my life, on a search to find 
The love who'll stay for eternity 
The heaven sent to fulfill my needs 
But when I turn around 
Again, love has knocked me down 
My heart got broken, oh it hurt so bad 
I'm sad to say, love wins again 

So I placed my heart under lock and key 
To take some time, and take care of me"
               -Deborah Cox