Folktale Week is an online event which takes place on Instagram every year towards the end of november. It is a week of seven art prompts based on storytelling, one for each day, and many artists love it because is connected (as the title says) to the magic of folk and fairy tales.
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| Prompt 1: FOOL |
Following each prompt, creators are invited to create an image, with any media: paint, drawing, photography, collage, poetry, 3D art...
For the last two years, because it is such an exciting but overwhelming task to create a final piece every day, the hosts released the prompts some weeks in advance, to give artists the time to create at a more doable pace.
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| Prompt 2: TREE |
A challenge is always...challenging (excuse the pan!) as it pushes us out of our comfort zone, for one reason or another: the ability to tell a story with images, consistency of style and characters, time constraints. But precisely for this, it is always a fantastic opportunity for growth, especially as there is a strong and very kind sense of community and mutual support going on every year. This year, I joined Sarah Dyer, a wonderful artists and teacher who gave so many advices and inspiration for this event.
Also, because of its popularity, many people follow it and this gives creators more visibility. Only in 2022, more than fifteen thousand posts were tagged.
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| Prompt 3 and 4 combined: STAR + REBEL |
I have been taking part last time in 2020, and still that work is featured in some of my best selling greeting cards . This year, I wanted to do it because I needed some mental space for personal work in between the book I am illustrating. Also, I decided I was finally going to try and put on paper my long lasting love for mushrooms, and crate a story based on their wondrous world about which I was reading in the best seller Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake.
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| Prompt 5: COSTUME |
For a series of coincidences, I happened to be alone at home, with my mushroom book and my ideas for this story... and I jumped in with my whole mind and heart. I researched fact, looked at photos, discovered so many amazing things, and my inspiration grew between imagination and reality. If anything, the drawing that came out of this will always remind me of this magical time.
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| Prompt 6: POTION |
What came out, is a curious little story about two friends, a Leaf cutter ants (Effin) and a fluorescent snail (Baob) who want to solve the mistery of sleepless nights in the woods. They happen to discover it underground: it is a Star Mushroom , which happened to have fallen from the skies because... people forgot how to dream. But now, she loves it down there...it is full of life! Effin and Baob persuade her to come back to the surface with them, and by catching the dance of the spores...the star mushroom flies back to the skies. Since that day, of course, dreams are back in the woods!
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| The star mushroom in the woods |
This story gave me opportunity to include many interesting facts about leaf cutter ants, that farm mushrooms, and Quantula Striata, an elusive snail that emits fluorescent lights (researchers have different ideas of the reasons for it, but probably is for communication) but also the magnificent sculptures of Dillon Weston and the spores dance, of course...a real nature show if you happen to see it!
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| Prompt 7: VICTORY |
I took my drawing into school and children were very intrigued by all these interesting things... and by these two characters also. Which gave me the confidence to finish the story, and imagining the life of these two friends after it. I hope to develop it further, as I feel their adventures could easily carry on!
