Australian Fairy Review: Letter For Liberty

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.