Australian Fairy Review: December 2016

Faerie Congrats

Naomi Henderson & Wendy Rule

Nicholas Albanis

Congrats to trance-medieval duo Dandelion Wine and wiccan diva Wendy Rule on their successful Midsummer Faerie Ball, Dec 2016 in Melbourne. Here's a photo (above) of two powerful Australian faeries, Naomi and Wendy, and another of Nicholas Albanis (left) complete with wings, twirly mo & lute.

Feb 2017 Victorian Fairy Tale Ring explores Sleeping Beauty. These antique illustrations (below) are in public domain. At least one hails from a book published in 1910, Sleeping Beauty and other Fairy Tales by Charles Perrault, illustrated by Edmund Dulac.

Here's a delightful illustration from a Japanese fairy tale entitled The Green Willow. I once read that willows are not such a pest as some ecologists assume. These river-lovers helpfully slow the flow of flood water, reducing erosion and giving reeds a chance to filter pollution.

'The Green Willow' - a Japanese fairy tale

Melbourne poet Bee Williamson has released her marvellous new collection of poems and images, Torment and Soul. It's been sheer joy to partake of the fruits of Bee's toil - writing the Introduction, by invitation - as well as hearing Bee and other lyrical souls read, sing and play. For those of you who don't yet know Bee Williamson's writing, drawing, or graphic design: if you're into eco-mysticism that sashays between harrowing honesty, whimsy and ecstasy, this is for you. Listeners of my music might like to know that Bee is the daughter of one of our brilliant longtime producers, Harry Williamson.

Here is where to purchase Bee's book, Torment & Soul.
Bookpod
Readings

More of Bee's art, from her other exhibitions or books:

Broadly speaking, we all inhabit Melbourne's ethereal movement that includes explorations of esoteric, phantasmagoric, intercultural, transcendental, polytheist, magic-realist, Faerie/ fairytalish, fantastique, mythological, trance-medieval, psychedelic and Pre-Raphaelite currents.
xxx Louisa John-Krol xxx

Australian Fairy Tale Society
Thank you Gypsy Thornton of Once Upon A Blog for decorating The Australian Fairy Tale Society's logo (right) with native flora for the season, and for superb ezine designs & conceptualisation this year.

Storytelling Australia Victoria
(formerly the Victorian Storytelling Guild)

Below is my emblem Blue Tree for music, writing, proof-reading, tutoring and fairy storytelling. Australian creative expressionist Karan Wicks designed the logo in the late 1990s, when I was between record companies (German, then French). It's abided as a symbol of independence, mingling our Celtic-European heritage with bushland of Australia, through Yggdrasil, the World Tree. The chalice represents vessels of creativity: Arthurian grail, Ceridwen's cauldron, and a wellspring over which the Well Women, Norns or Muses preside, to name a few. The blue is an optical shimmer of gum-trees due to eucalyptus oil that's both nourishing and deadly. I'm interested in the interplay of light and shadow that haunts humanity's shared histories, myths, fairy tales and dreams.

Blue Tree Ethereal Arts

You can discover more of my ethereal music & faerielore here.

Fey regards,

Louisa John-Krol

A Letter For Liberty

Dear readers, listeners, friends and other curious elves,

The ancestors who sat in this chair made great
sacrifices for freedom & fairness.
I cherish their legacy.

Whilst my progressive values have long been discernible, I have so far favoured poetic over polemic approaches to artistic expression, focussing on esoteric, transcendent themes or metaphors.

I've hoped my music and writing might be an oasis, a refuge from harshness, which doesn't mean being ‘away with the fairies’. By delving into imagination we reach deeper into shared humanity. Being enchanted is to fall in love with the world.

Yet there are times when we need to defend our peace. Times when simply being peaceful is not enough.

In December 2016, I wrote a Letter For Liberty that I posted in this space. I have subsequently moved it out of this fairy blog, and will be reposting it elsewhere. The reason is that there are many other artists involved in this fairy blog, including members of the Australian Fairy Tale Society, of which I became President a couple of months after writing the letter. The AFTS is not a political organisation. It's a non-profit, public charity representing people of diverse viewpoints. Moreover, some of the interviewees who appear here have jobs in senior public service positions that require them to exhibit impartiality online. As such - although there were no complaints or promptings from anyone - I decided that it would be responsible to keep this fairy blog as neutral as possible, and place my polemic Letter For Liberty at another location. Once it's posted, I'll place the link here.

Meanwhile, here are some remnant pictures to enjoy from that post!

knowledge is true power
not post-truth

Princess Imprisoned
by H.J. Ford, 1906

German postcard, 1920s

"Come ye poor, I will lead you"
(my own ironic caption)
picture of King Thrushbeard
by Arthur Rackham, 1909

Wizard gift from Robert Gould & Stephanie Lostimolo
of Imaginosis / Faerieworlds, Oregon, USA
against backdrop of painting by Karan Wicks,
Australian creative-expressionist.

Ceramic 'Eye in the Whirlpool'
by a client (anon) of art teacher Belinda John
at the Peter Harcourt Centre, Bendigo,
in an exhibition by people with disabilities

Let us be spirited artists: creators of worlds in which artists thrive.