The good folk who make up the Pack of Wolves collective have invited me to join their re-imagined fairy tale exhibition, Once Upon Again. It’s being organised by the very talented Layla Holzer, and runs from 27th February to 9th March at the Milkwood Gallery in Cardiff.
I’ve been working on a new Frau Trude papercut, re-imagined to include a sword-wielding girl who definitely hasn’t stopped by the old fire demon’s house to be turned into firewood. Frau Trude’s one of my all-time favourite fairy tales: it’s brutal, mean, and utterly cold-hearted, and you can read this short and despicably-sweet tale on the fabulous SurLaLane website here.
The papercut is in a shadow box frame that has two mounts – one at the front and one at the back – so I’ve been able to cut two separate A4 images: one that has the fire and the chandelier in the background, and another that has the characters in the foreground.
Layla’s also organising a private viewing on Saturday 2nd March featuring all manner of exciting stuff including puppetry and live music. This includes a shadow puppetry performance of Jabberwocky, and I’ve made a few supporting characters for it: a borogrove, tove, and rath.
**February update…a few last minute tweaks to the papercut before I ship it to Cardiff! I decided to add a sheet of vellum in-between the background and foreground to give the characters more definition, I armed Frau Trude with more fire, and I made the fire in the woodburner more fiery. Oh, and I added a window. In the story, the girl spies Frau Trude through the window and sees her for the devil she really is. Plus, I figured a cabin needs a window.
in the dark woods 