Autore: omina
Data: 19-10-04 21:56
Fairy books, information on fairies, elves and the faery world
ONCE UPON A TIME it seemed you could not go out into the world without tripping over a fairy. Fairies lived in the hills, elves lurked behind trees, and a fireside always had its own brownie. Every aspect of the world was vibrant with fairy life. Fairies were our constant companions. Artists and mystics have always attempted to express the nature of Faery, even though their efforts have often been rewarded with contemporary scorn and derision. And yet the power of Faery is irresistible, for fairies stand at the gateways to insight and wisdom.
The ancients knew them; medieval monks drew them in the margins of their manuscripts; Shakespeare wrote of them; the greatest of painters have conjured their forms in line and colour; and poets of genius such as Keats and Yeats have had a profound relationship with the muses of Faery.
But then came the 20th century, and all through it fairies seemed to retreat into their secret places, taking with them their enchantment. Without them, our experience of the world was hollow and grey. Our knowledge of fairies was reduced to the tritest and gaudiest products of the human mind, washed up on the shorelines of nurseries.
Towards the end of the century, however, there came a revitalization of Faery and the images of it that human artists created. More and more artists again began to express themselves through the depiction of ethereal fairy forms.
And now it is the 21st century, and the fairies are returning.
Fairies mediate art, the mysterious moments of our creative relationship with the world. Whereas the 20th century in general emphasized our alienation from the world, in its final decade or two the resurgence of fairy art, as seen in books and in major museum shows displaying works from past and present, began to reverse this. The process is continuing in this new century of ours.
The visionary art of Faery represents the beginning of a spiritual journey. To paint fairies is not childish, but it could certainly be said to be childlike - childlike in its openness to creative and emotional impulses. This, of course, is a state that all seers and mystics strive for. To be open to the possibility of feeling the soft breeze created by the wing of a fairy, and to express this in art, is to understand a profound connection to the world and to each other.
The Art of Faery book is a catalogue of fairy art for the 21st century. In its pages you will find artists from different countries and backgrounds, yet all have the common bond of being guides to the realms of Faery. They attempt to reveal the normally unseen. They illuminate the dark inner recesses of nature and our relationship with it. And in so doing they reveal the radiance of Faery.
In his play Peter Pan, when Tinkerbell was dying, J.M. Barrie asked audiences to revive her by clapping their hands to show they believed in fairies. This book will undoubtedly receive a thunder of applause.
Brian Froud
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