Fast times at Massart high

Well, due to the swift and unfortunate death of my ten year old printer this morning, my book does not quite have the universal benefits of, say, having all its peices in the same place at the same time. This is a grievous occurrence and will be remedied post haste.

I learned that kid's stories, specifically the antique ones, circa the Brother's Grimm and Lewis Caroll, are not just happy-go-lucky tales to delight and entertain. Some of the stories are quite brutal and gruesome, like at the end of Snow White when the wicked Queen is forced to put on iron slippers that have been heated in the fire and dance until she drops down dead. It might not seem like part of my original conception but I put these shocking parts of the stories into my book to show further that the line between "adult concepts" and children isn't that visible. I think its interesting that children's authors used to put things like that in their stories, and maybe as a response the people and kids reading them would respond more honestly, more wholly to these stories.

It was hard to think up ways to set up photos to illustrate the passages of the stories I had picked out, and I'm still not finished with it. I guess I wanted a more industrial feel to the whole thing, more pictures of the actual city and not just taken in my apartment. I am thinking of redoing some of the pictures.

Book project

I think the earliest form of art we are exposed to is children's books. These books are probably the first and, for some of us, last times we look at learning and reading to be in cahoots with fun. When parent's read aloud to their children its an action that brings them closer together and exposes their children to certain ideas about the world. Children's books or story/picture books are the first things to encourage imagination, and it is through mimicing the ideas and nuances of these stories that children play and relate with each other. They are central social tools but also a haven for the solitary kid, who is maybe less outgoing than the others.

What I wanted to do with this project is relate these fairy tales to the world in which we live in today. I wanted to make the reference that these stories are based on the real world, and also possibly hint that, because of them, the real world is made more magical. Thats why I tried to incorporate children's book characters into real life settings in the way that makes most sense to me, which is, essentially, graffiti. Graffiti is a very quiet art, something you wouldn't notice until it is right in front of your face, and it has to be because it's mostly illegal. It's also something that lives in the city, a place where its most likely to be unwanted and also a place where its most likely to be appreciated, which I find ironic. I think that's also how this sense of magic works, this fairy tale concept, its most unwanted in the serious, adult world but because the serious adult world is so convoluted and complicated, thats probably where it would be most appreciated.