Fairies and Fairy Art

After learning that Long Island’s First Fairy Festival will be held this May at Sands Point Preserve, I entered a new painting titled “The Bird Fairy” into the Fairy Art Show that will be held during the festival. The painting above is titled “Firefly” and I painted it many years ago when I lived in a place that felt really magical to me. “Firefly” sold to a couple who saw it at my solo exhibition at IMAC concert hall in Huntington in 2001 and I hope they are still enjoying it! I always hope that the people who are moved enough by my art to purchase it and live with it continue to enjoy it once the work of art has passed into their hands.

Recent thoughts of Fairies are awakening my lifelong love of the Fairy and Elven realms and is guiding me back to a dim little light inside myself that I thought had gone out. Perhaps it has, just like in Peter Pan when people say they don’t believe in Fairies, one drops out of the air and withers away. Perhaps sometimes the most crucial thing to our wellbeing is that someone is able to truly see us and say, “I DO believe! I DO believe in you!”

It would be too lengthy a blog post to write about all the ways that Fairy has touched my life throughout the years, and how many times people from different areas of my life over the years have said they felt the Fairy magic in me. I am remembering it now. I had forgotten, with all the loss and sadness and grief and illness of recent years… I had forgotten. My light went out. But I am starting to feel a flickering inside.

I do so hope that my “Bird Fairy” gets into the Fairy Festival Art Show. Certainly I’ll post about it if it does. Or perhaps I’ll post about it even if it doesn’t. If the flicker grows stronger, perhaps there will be more Fairy-themed posts in the future. For now I’ll end this post with an excerpt from my book titled “Memoirs of a Little Ghost” which is available on Amazon.

“Do You Believe in Fairies?” - April 6, 2010

"I do, I do!" At least I think I do. I've always loved the idea of fairies... airy little whimsical beings who could fly about unseen by human eyes and do mischievous or magical things. At least I imagine pretty colors, transparent wings, pointed ears, something sparkly like fairy dust and an ethereal presence that can be detected if we only believe. 

One summer evening when I was living at a farm-like place, I walked from my car, over the lawn and toward my apartment. My boyfriend at the time was with me and I wondered out loud if we would see any fireflies that night, since we hadn't seen any yet so far that season. Watching fireflies is one of my favorite things each summer, and the first firefly is always the most exciting, like the first snowfall in winter, or the first robin in spring. 

That night, it was a beautifully calm and peaceful evening with almost no wind, and the temperature was perfect... not too cold, not too warm. We looked around and started seeing some fireflies. They're easy to spot with their warm pale greenish glow and the upward movement as the evening wears on. I was the one who was far more interested and kept watching as if I were a child seeing them for the first time. 

It didn't take long for me to spot something across the lawn and past the rose garden, and it was not a firefly. It was bigger, brighter, faster and a different color. Another insect perhaps? Perhaps.

As we were about to enter the apartment, I looked at it and wondered what it was and pointed it out to my boyfriend, who was the "have to see it to believe it" kind of person. He knew a lot about a lot of things, but he had no idea what this could have been. He unlocked the door and for the split second that I took my eye off of the thing, it had zipped over the rose garden across the lawn and was not far from where we stood. That was an unbelievably short amount of time for anything to have flown that fast! It was eerie and I'm sure we both got chills (at least I did). I asked my boyfriend if he saw it too, and he did. Suddenly Mr. "See It to Believe It" didn't have an answer... only the same perplexed look on his face that I had. He then said maybe it's a fairy. He said that? Yes he did! I'm sure he said it for my amusement, but I grinned with glee at the real possibility that yes, indeed, it was a fairy. 

From then on I started believing more than I ever had before, and my belief was strengthened every time I walked outside onto the lawn in the morning to find a ring of mushrooms that weren't there the day before.”

Delphic Spheres - The Opening

I am so happy to have a solo exhibition at The Gallery @ in Huntington, NY. The show will run through March 25th. The Opening Reception was held on Sunday, January 22nd - a year and a day after my first stroke last year. It was delightful to see so many friends come to support my art. It was touching beyond words… the words many said to me. The hugs. The kindness. The support of me and my journey, including who and what I am now.

Some of my friends I hadn’t seen since before covid and some, longer than that. They had followed me on social media where I often share bits of my life and story, especially since the three strokes I had last year. I am definitely changed since then, perhaps forever. With so many pre-existing health issues, it’s more realistic to accept the way I feel while doing what I can to heal and doing my best with each new day. Honestly, I don’t feel much better than I did right after the strokes, so acceptance of where I am right now helps me. Kind of like what my Circle Paintings are all about - acceptance.

When I got to the show - I had a LOT of help, even delivering the work, which I would not have been able to do on my own - I was joyfully surprised at how owners Brittany and Brigitte curated the art. Which paintings they placed next to which other paintings, how the show was hung. WOW.

THIS was the real stunner for me - my triptych from 1996 with the two recent Circle Paintings behind it. Not only was it visually balanced and harmonious (the blues and golds really tie it all together, plus the shapes), but the way the three pieces were placed created a feeling greater than the sum of its parts. It felt sacred to me. This one grouping alone really struck me deeply. And all the other works and how they complemented each other. Brittany and Brigitte really saw my art, looked at each work, and truly honored it by the way they chose to hang the show. I was and still am so immensely grateful. And so grateful to every person who took the time to spend the afternoon with me that day celebrating art and life.

Bone Sister

This is the time of year when it feels like a good time to share my painting "Bone Sister". Years ago there was a website called Virtual Beret which accepted submissions from artists and asked them to describe a work of art in terms of a "beret" worn by the subject of their art. For me, I sent them "Bone Sister" and wrote about her. At a time when I was denying my spirituality, it still made its way to my consciousness through my art. Here is what I wrote about "Bone Sister":

This is Bone Sister.

Bone Sister is a very tall, thin, slender creature who has the appearance of being very frail though in fact she is very strong, as she has endured since the beginning of humanity. Her skin is pale and lucid, and has a subtle sheen like the glow of the moon on a clear winter night. Her eyes are of shimmery gold, and stare into your soul with the force of a thousand lasers. They direct their steady gaze deep into your subconscious and suck away all your pain with the strength of their glare.

She shares this pain with you, and helps you to understand and accept that which we can never escape - Death. Bone Sister is the Guide through the Underworld, and helps those on an earthly plane who have lost the ones they loved.

Bone Sister has mastered the art of creating shadows, illusions, dreams, memories and visions for those she helps, and she accomplishes these things in a couple of ways. One of the ways in which she does this is by spinning images from a glistening web-like substance emitted from her long spider-like fingertips. She does this so fast that it is almost impossible to see her move. The images are faint and ghostly, calling forth souls that have passed into another dimension so that they may bid one last farewell to those they left behind. Another medium she uses to do her work is her knowledge of the human psyche and her empathy for the human plight, which make it possible for her to cast images beneath the eyes of a person while they are sleeping.

These images are such that they will cause sweet dreams reminiscent of times that are past, and people that are gone from the material world.

Bone Sister's "beret" consists of two bone-like structures that are affixed to the sides of her bare skull, sitting at the sides of her head like two stationery closed angel's wings. They have become permanent, and have melded with the bones in her head. These bones are her crown, and make her face the altar at which to pray when darkness has unbiddenly descended and will not lift.