Into the Wood

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.   

   

-robert frost

"In my old age, I see that life itself is often more fantastic and terrible than the stories we believed as children, and that perhaps there is no harm in finding magic among the trees."

- The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey

Frog and Toad

Norse Myth

Freya the ethreal Norse Goddess of the heavens. She was known to have a dress of falcon feathers that allowed her to fly between worlds. Re-imagining her as leaving her heavenly realm in order to visit her friend Níðhöggr. Níðhöggr is the Norse dragon who forever gnaws at the root of the world's tree. It's sometimes said the roots are trapping him below. He is the dragon of the underworld--but who knows if he necessarily wants to be there. Perhaps one of Freya's adventures was going down into the seas to befriend and learn the language of those creatures that lived below, perhaps helping Níðhöggr on his quest to break free. Or like my drawing above, maybe she fell asleep in a small boat on one of her adventures,and  Níðhöggr awoke her by gnawing gently at her finger, before Hel could come up and steal her away from the world.

(illustration in iceland manuscript: 17th century)

Victorian Toy Theater

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On Coyotes And Other Wild Things...

niece mira and drawing

"All tricksters are "on the road." They are the lords of in-between. A trickster does not live near the hearth; he does not live in the halls of justice, the soldier's tent, the shaman's hut, the monastery. He passes through each of these when there is a moment of silence, and he enlivens each with mischief, but he is not their guiding spirit. He is the spirit of the doorway leading out, and of the crossroad at the edge of town. He is the spirit of the road at dusk, the one that runs from one town to another and belongs to neither. Trickster is the creative idiot, the speaker of sacred profanities." -Trickster Makes this World, Lewis Hyde

A Haunted Mongrel Terrain

"We're all citizens of a haunted, mongrel terrain where nothing, not even the most appealing saint, is that simple."

-Stacey D'erasmo

On Magical Objects

"Everything that the big city has thrown away, everything it has lost, everything it has scorned, everything it has crushed underfoot. The rags, the refuse-these I will not inventory but allow, in the only way possible, to come into their own: by making use of them."

-walter benjamin