I came across this tale in my research about fairytale shoes. The story is called The Magic Shoes and Staff. It begins with three nobel brothers living with their wives in luxury until a drought came. The brothers, in a fit of selfishness, ditched their wives to find a better place. They disregarded their wives and left. Once the brothers went away, one of the wives found out she was pregnant. The three women were delighted and raised him together -- the aunts doted on the ba

The story of Tom Thumb shares some details with Little Red Ridinghood. Tom’s family is very poor. There are seven children and two parents in a little home trying to survive on next to no income. Tom’s parents decide they can no longer support their children and determine to take them to the woods and leave them, so they won’t have to watch their children die. Tom hears his parents plotting. He grabs white stones from the garden. The next morning, when his parents feed them a

In Puss in Boots by Charles Perrault, three sons lose their father. There is only a little bit of inheritance. The oldest son receives the mill, the second son receives a donkey, and the third son receives the cat. The youngest son feels disappointed as his brothers have enough to work together to make a living. This son… has a cat. After hearing the boy’s plan to eat the cat for survival, the cat speaks up. The cat assures the boy that, if he gives him a pair of boots, the c

In The Galoshes of Fortune by Hans Christian Andersen, Dame Fortune’s assistant and Dame Care herself, leave a pair of magic galoshes in a pile of boots at a party. The boots can take the wearer to any time and any place. However, in each chapter of this tale, the person wearing the boots is taken somewhere they have romanticized only to find out it is not so wonderful after all. Thereby finding renewed contentment with their own life. If I had to pick a moral for this tale,

In the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales, there’s a story called The Juniper Tree. A small boy whose mother died gets a new step mother who (surprise) favors her own daughter. Eventually, the step mother kills the little boy (she chops his head off with the lid of a achest. Yikes!) and covers it up by tying a ribbon around his neck to hold his head on (who remembers the story of the girl with the green ribbon?!) until she can trick her daughter into believing SHE killed her brother

It interests me to consider how there is a Cinderella story in folktales around the world. Did somoeone travel around telling the tale but altering it for the area? Is wanting to be lifted out of poverty and rescued by a man of means via shoes somehow a universal, innate wish by women all over? Did the tale slowly spread and get changed because of language variations? The Cinderella trope is certainly popular, even if no shoes are involved in the story. Just look at Twilight

There is a very fun gallery show coming up in May for which I am applying. The show is centered on myths and legends. I am so excited about this show, as it is right up my alley! I am creating a collection of small gouache collage fairytale shoes — as in my interpretation of shoes that play a role in fairytales. Each shoe will be framed in a 5” by 5” shallow shadow box… that’s how small they will be! I will post the shoes and their stories over the coming days.

For the Utah Art Market, I wanted to make some smaller paintings as part of a series of hot air balloons. Here's the first one I've finished: This one was made using the help of my Silhouette machine for all the tiny cutting. I drew everything in my iPad first, and then let the Silhouette do the cutting. Then, I painted and pasted everything. I love how it turned out.