Monday 30 May 2011
Anne Stokes
Anne Stokes is a British fantasy artist. She has both faerie and dragon art which is a plus for me as I love both. http://www.annestokes.com/
Friday 27 May 2011
Inappropriate Fairy
NOT SAFE FOR WORK. MUST BE OF AGE.
This is a comedic little skit by the popular YouTube personality Timothy DeLaGhetto.The skit is about a guy who is sexually frustrated and is visited by the skeet fairy one night. She tells him that whenever he says her name, Mary, she'll magically appear, wave her wand, and he'll 'skeet'. But as time goes on he finds that it's difficult to go through life without saying Mary in awkward places.
It's a pretty funny skit. Nothing inappropriate is shown, but if you've hit puberty you'll probably have little difficulty understanding the subject matter. Aside from the subject matter there is also swearing. Must be of age and mature!!! The rule is you have to be at least 16 to watch it. Maybe 17. Deal?
This is a comedic little skit by the popular YouTube personality Timothy DeLaGhetto.The skit is about a guy who is sexually frustrated and is visited by the skeet fairy one night. She tells him that whenever he says her name, Mary, she'll magically appear, wave her wand, and he'll 'skeet'. But as time goes on he finds that it's difficult to go through life without saying Mary in awkward places.
It's a pretty funny skit. Nothing inappropriate is shown, but if you've hit puberty you'll probably have little difficulty understanding the subject matter. Aside from the subject matter there is also swearing. Must be of age and mature!!! The rule is you have to be at least 16 to watch it. Maybe 17. Deal?
Saturday 21 May 2011
Ben Heine- Pencil vs Camera
This artist is amazing in how he attacks reality with his imagination. There is nothing more simple than a pencil drawing, and yet this approach to photography is so fresh and imaginative that it goes beyond a simple drawing/ picture. There was really only the tinker bell picture that was faerie-ish, but I was really impressed by the idea.. so why not. Check out the rest of his stuff on his website http://www.benheine.com/pencilvscamera.html
Tuesday 17 May 2011
The Green Man
As some of you may know, it is currently the hockey playoffs and the Vancouver team is in the finals. I was with some friends while they were watching a game and all of a sudden the camera focused on these two guys covered from head to toe in bright green spandex. They call themselves the green men.
Apparently these two are supporters of Vancouver and show up to games and entertain/ taunt the players and crowd to support their team. Here is a video of an ESPN interview
Now you must be asking yourself... what do these two hockey geeks have to do with faeries? Well. As I have absolutely no interest in hockey, when I saw these guys the first thing I thought of was the Green Man.
Chances are you've seen this face already, it's a pretty common sight.
There are hundreds if not thousands of variations and artistic interpretations, but it is essentially a face composed of or peeking out from a cluster of leaves.
The Green Man is a figure in the Celtic tradition that probably had some significant pagan meaning pre- Christian colonization, but has now been reduced to a fancy lawn ornament. The Green Man motif can be found inside of many old, famous cathedrals and churches, one of these being Exeter Cathedral in England. Here is a link to a page on their website dedicated to the many depictions of the Green Man http://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/history/greenmen.ashx
Though I've known of the Green Man for a long time, I was never 100% positive of it's significance. As the origins of the symbol are lost I don't feel too badly for my ignorance. As I was searching for some sort of reference to refer to in this post I found that not too many other people knew what it meant either, and few sites other than Wikipedia took any stabs at a description (Wikipedia focusing more on architectural relevance than mythological description). Even the several reference books I have on faeries and mythology in general, some focused specifically on Celtic mythology, seemed to leave the Green Man out of their collection of mythological figures. I finally found an entry in The Encyclopedia of Spirits by Judika Illes. In this book, the Green Man is explained to be the spirit of irrepressible life and the regenerative powers of nature. Think weeds growing out of rock or cement. It is also a symbol of decay, or of returning to the earth.
This face has always fascinated me. A face hidden in the foliage. There is a wonderful element of mystery and secrecy in magic and fantasy. A sense that there is something unknown, something to be discovered; which I adore. I have also always felt a strong connection to nature, and have always associated magical creatures like faeries with natural settings. Faeries turning into foxes, birds or bugs. Faeries living in trees and flowers or underground. Faeries always choosing nature to hide themselves in when humans are passing by. The two have always been connected in my mind. Even now when I pass by a small cluster of trees or walk through the woods, me being fantastically minded, half of my brain is looking for hidden faeries. For myself, the Green Man is just as valid and powerful a symbol for fantasy as is the dragon or the unicorn... with maybe a little more focus placed on the little people.
Apparently these two are supporters of Vancouver and show up to games and entertain/ taunt the players and crowd to support their team. Here is a video of an ESPN interview
Now you must be asking yourself... what do these two hockey geeks have to do with faeries? Well. As I have absolutely no interest in hockey, when I saw these guys the first thing I thought of was the Green Man.
Chances are you've seen this face already, it's a pretty common sight.
There are hundreds if not thousands of variations and artistic interpretations, but it is essentially a face composed of or peeking out from a cluster of leaves.
The Green Man is a figure in the Celtic tradition that probably had some significant pagan meaning pre- Christian colonization, but has now been reduced to a fancy lawn ornament. The Green Man motif can be found inside of many old, famous cathedrals and churches, one of these being Exeter Cathedral in England. Here is a link to a page on their website dedicated to the many depictions of the Green Man http://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/history/greenmen.ashx
Though I've known of the Green Man for a long time, I was never 100% positive of it's significance. As the origins of the symbol are lost I don't feel too badly for my ignorance. As I was searching for some sort of reference to refer to in this post I found that not too many other people knew what it meant either, and few sites other than Wikipedia took any stabs at a description (Wikipedia focusing more on architectural relevance than mythological description). Even the several reference books I have on faeries and mythology in general, some focused specifically on Celtic mythology, seemed to leave the Green Man out of their collection of mythological figures. I finally found an entry in The Encyclopedia of Spirits by Judika Illes. In this book, the Green Man is explained to be the spirit of irrepressible life and the regenerative powers of nature. Think weeds growing out of rock or cement. It is also a symbol of decay, or of returning to the earth.
This face has always fascinated me. A face hidden in the foliage. There is a wonderful element of mystery and secrecy in magic and fantasy. A sense that there is something unknown, something to be discovered; which I adore. I have also always felt a strong connection to nature, and have always associated magical creatures like faeries with natural settings. Faeries turning into foxes, birds or bugs. Faeries living in trees and flowers or underground. Faeries always choosing nature to hide themselves in when humans are passing by. The two have always been connected in my mind. Even now when I pass by a small cluster of trees or walk through the woods, me being fantastically minded, half of my brain is looking for hidden faeries. For myself, the Green Man is just as valid and powerful a symbol for fantasy as is the dragon or the unicorn... with maybe a little more focus placed on the little people.
Monday 16 May 2011
Twinkle, the Dream Being
This is a cartoon from the 90's about a magical genie from planet possibility who turns his friends dreams into reality, and there is of course the evil Miss Diva who tries to stop him and enslave the planet. http://www.90scartoons.co.uk/twinklethedreambeing.php
Unlike most of the tv shows/ films/ etc I post, I've never actually seen or interacted with this show, but it seems faerie-ish. And try as I might I haven't been able to find this show streaming anywhere! If anyone has seen it and has fond memories (or not so fond maybe), feel free to leave a comment about it.
Here's the intro song, and it's all I can find, so enjoy! (yes it is in another language, even though it's from the US)
Unlike most of the tv shows/ films/ etc I post, I've never actually seen or interacted with this show, but it seems faerie-ish. And try as I might I haven't been able to find this show streaming anywhere! If anyone has seen it and has fond memories (or not so fond maybe), feel free to leave a comment about it.
Here's the intro song, and it's all I can find, so enjoy! (yes it is in another language, even though it's from the US)
Wednesday 11 May 2011
Fallen Angels
As many of you may know, before Christianity swept across Europe 'pagan' religions were the predominant form of belief and worship. One such pagan belief would be that faeries exist.
Religion plays a large role in how a person views themselves and the world. Even if you are not religious, you grew up in a society based on religious belief and your position for or against religion helps you to place yourself within that society. It also answers some questions about morality, the afterlife, etc. A rule of thumb in casual conversation is to avoid religion and politics because more often than not someone will get angry. Now with this in mind, you could only imagine how difficult it would be for a complete stranger to come into your life and make you change your spiritual beliefs. An ingenious move by the Christian church at the time was to super-impose their belief system on the belief system of the group of people they were trying to convert, in the beginning anyway. People who believed in sub-deities or held a certain set of beliefs or believed certain days to be sacred, all of that was mushed together with Jesus slapped on top. (As many of you may know this is also why we have certain Christian holidays at certain times of the year, like Easter coincided with the solstice, things like that).
So when Christianity came to conquer places like Ireland, where people believe in the fair folk, the priests had to find a way to work that local folk belief into the new religion so that Christianity would gain more followers. What the priests came up with is to say that faeries are angels that have fallen out of favour with God. They were once angels living in heaven, just like the angels that live there now. If you know your angel lore you'll know that there was a huge battle at some point. It was either a revolt by the angels or an attack by the devil, I'm not sure which, and the faeries couldn't choose which side they wanted to support. For their indecisiveness they were cast out of heaven, but they couldn't go to hell as they did not choose to side with the devil, so they were banished to Earth. This might also be where they get their immortality from. Angelology seems like it would be full of symbolism and archetypes and very interesting to learn. If ever you get a chance, look into it.
These are some links to different descriptions of what an angel is
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1521&letter=A&search=angelology
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01476d.htm
http://www.sunna.info/Lessons/islam_331.html
http://www.spiritual.com.au/articles/angels/angels_uk.htm
Religion plays a large role in how a person views themselves and the world. Even if you are not religious, you grew up in a society based on religious belief and your position for or against religion helps you to place yourself within that society. It also answers some questions about morality, the afterlife, etc. A rule of thumb in casual conversation is to avoid religion and politics because more often than not someone will get angry. Now with this in mind, you could only imagine how difficult it would be for a complete stranger to come into your life and make you change your spiritual beliefs. An ingenious move by the Christian church at the time was to super-impose their belief system on the belief system of the group of people they were trying to convert, in the beginning anyway. People who believed in sub-deities or held a certain set of beliefs or believed certain days to be sacred, all of that was mushed together with Jesus slapped on top. (As many of you may know this is also why we have certain Christian holidays at certain times of the year, like Easter coincided with the solstice, things like that).
So when Christianity came to conquer places like Ireland, where people believe in the fair folk, the priests had to find a way to work that local folk belief into the new religion so that Christianity would gain more followers. What the priests came up with is to say that faeries are angels that have fallen out of favour with God. They were once angels living in heaven, just like the angels that live there now. If you know your angel lore you'll know that there was a huge battle at some point. It was either a revolt by the angels or an attack by the devil, I'm not sure which, and the faeries couldn't choose which side they wanted to support. For their indecisiveness they were cast out of heaven, but they couldn't go to hell as they did not choose to side with the devil, so they were banished to Earth. This might also be where they get their immortality from. Angelology seems like it would be full of symbolism and archetypes and very interesting to learn. If ever you get a chance, look into it.
These are some links to different descriptions of what an angel is
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1521&letter=A&search=angelology
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01476d.htm
http://www.sunna.info/Lessons/islam_331.html
http://www.spiritual.com.au/articles/angels/angels_uk.htm
Friday 6 May 2011
The Wasp (Janet van Dyne)
The Wasp is a member of The Avengers (Captain America, Iron man, Thor, ...). She is able to control her size, either to shrink to the size of a bug or to grow very large. She is also able to fly, control bugs telepathically, and shoot people with blasts of energy. She is also married to Ant-Man, another Avenger.
Here is a segment of an episode featuring the wasp the Disney cartoon of the Avengers
And this is another fan vid with pictures of the Wasp
Here is a segment of an episode featuring the wasp the Disney cartoon of the Avengers
And this is another fan vid with pictures of the Wasp
Tuesday 3 May 2011
The Dollsmith Store
From the site: The Dollsmith Store is a gallery and showroom for fine handmade Art Dolls. It is a place of inspiration and a source for hard to find quality doll making supplies and instructional information pertaining to Art dolls. We currently feature the beautiful works of artist Kat Soto and will gradually be adding the licensed works of other well-known and long admired Doll Artists.
The dolls are all completely hand crafted from their painted faces to the elaborate attire. As such, the dolls are limited edition, so if you see one you like consider buying it.. because chances are you'll never see another like it.
https://www.thedollsmith.com/store/thedolls.html
The dolls are all completely hand crafted from their painted faces to the elaborate attire. As such, the dolls are limited edition, so if you see one you like consider buying it.. because chances are you'll never see another like it.
https://www.thedollsmith.com/store/thedolls.html
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