"everything has a heart."

faerie tale feet painting inspired by cathrynne m. valente's series of fairyland books.

i viscerally remember reading the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making while visiting family in michigan, sitting in my aunt’s sunroom, back when it first came out in 2011.  she (i call her “aunt seuss” because she was the keeper of alllll the dr. seuss books when i was a kid) asked how my book was– and all i could say was “if i wrote a book, i’m pretty sure i would write like this.”  i don’t mean that as an insult to ms. valente– i just mean it was surreal and quirky and had all the language and wordplay and delightfulness that i would someday wish to imbue upon the fiction-reading world.  it was just SO good.

so here we are six years later, and the fifth and final book has come out, and i took it upon myself to re-read and re-enjoy them all.  and then paint a picture.

most of my faerie tale feet series paintings are recognizable stories.  and i know the reading audience for this series of books is smaller than the crowds that usually come through my booth at art festivals, and most have maybe never even heard of them.  BUT, i do hope the painting stands on its own.  as a visual testament to the dreaming realms.  the shadow realms.  the magic realms and the eternal hope of being whisked away by the Green Wind on to another adventure on the back of a leopard- particularly if you’ve had quite enough of the nebraska farmland you are growing up in.  and i hope your friends are waiting for you there on the other side.

so have a look at my painting process below, and then i’ll share what all the icons in the background refer to in the books.  and as ever, you don’t have to of read the books to enjoy the painting.  but maybe you’ll want to pick one up later.  or give both art piece and book as a gift to a voracious book bear that sneaks into your library at night.

(oh, and the other thing i noticed upon re-reading this series is cathrynne’s love of shoes.  she gets it.  they’re symbolic and magical, and i’ll share some of the book quotes at the bottom of this page, too!!)

september lost one of her “prim little mary janes” on page 2 of the first book when the Green Wind whisked her over the windowsill onto the back of the Leopard of Little Breezes on her way to Fairyland.  and so our adventures immediately begin.  and it feels like in each and every chapter, september encounters new characters and creatures, obstacles, dangers, and friends.  so narrowing down the shapes that appear in our background pattern was a doozie.  but i tried.  so here are what we ended up with….

background pattern story iconography:

• the pink-and-yellow teacups which she had to wash everyday

• the witches’ wooden spoon (stolen by the marquess)

• a-through-l, the wyverary (his parents were a wyvern & a library)

• lye (a woman made of soap)

• september’s shadow self curtseying

• september is carrying her new ball shoes, a dangerous gift from the marquess (described in the book as: “…if september’s shoe had grown up, gone to a great many balls and theatrical to-dos, and found a dashing mate. they had little heels and black crystal lilies on the toes, with bits of ribbon looping and whorling all around, speckled with garnets and tiny black pearls.”)

• saturday (a marid, and september’s closest future more-than-friends friend)

• gleam, a great orange lantern, one of the tsukumogami

• the walnut-wood radio september would listen for news of her father off to war

• the rowboat

• jarlhopp- a furry turquoise kangaroo

• the moon (something about a yeti? i got very confused over that adventure, i’ll admit)

• stamps (to send a troll by post; changelings have to get here somehow)

• hawthorne’s baseball (all sorts of scary troubles when he comes to life)

• the pencil and balloon represent thomas rood/hawthorne’s notebook “inspector balloon” in which all the rules are written

• the plum blossoms represent tamburlaine’s purple flower garland hair

• the king’s tea had an elephant and a crown on the tea tag

• the walrus cobbler and subsequent kelly green & bright-violet foot prints (so many margin notes in a favorite chapter of book four called “unhappy feet.” so many shoes!!)

• derby race car

• book bears (!!)

• the crown of blue tongue berries and silver stars

• and for the background sky, i tried to do the prose justice: “the sky shone neither blue nor black, day nor night, but a fiery, swirling twilight. light blazed in scarlet, peacock, deep plum, and molten quicksilver, light so thick it seemed to drip from the air onto every surface.” (from the third book, the girl who soared over fairyland and cut the moon in two.)

there was more.  and a lot of things relevant to the story that just didn’t work as background icons (blunderbuss, the patchwork scrap-yarn wombat, for example.)

but i think we packed enough in here to celebrate our heroine september and all of her adventures, no?

so i hope you like the painting.  even if you haven’t read the books yet.  ms. valente’s writing is delectable and prances drippingly off the tongue, firing up imaginations and stories and escapades one would only dare to dream of.

the original painting has SOLD, but you can contact me for a list of available faerie tale feet pieces.

bonus memorable book quotes:

and in closing, here are just some of the remarkable lines and snippets from the five books of fairyland.  enJOY.

♥

“september read often, and liked it best when words did not pretend to be simple, but put on their full armor and rode out with colors flying.” (page 51, the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making)

♥

“i… i suspect it means that if we act like the kind of folk who would find a Fairy city whilst on various adventures involving tricksters, magical shoes, and hooliganism, it will come to us.”  (page 51, the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making)

♥

“i cannot help that readers will always insist on adventures, and though you can have grief without adventures, you cannot have adventures without grief.” (page 68, the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making)

♥

“shoes are funny beasts.  you think they’re just clothes, but really, they’re alive.  they want things.  fancy ones with gems want to go to balls, big boots want to go to work, slippers want to dance.  or sleep.  shoes make the path you’re on.  change your shoes, change the path.”  (page 187, the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making)

♥

“yes, of course, my little leaf.  and when you speak of tea or coffee or wine or any of our liquid spells, the drink must be matched perfectly with the drinker to get the best effect.  if the match is a good one, the coffee will get to know you a little while you drink it, to know you and love you and cheer for your victories, lend you bravery and daring.  the tea will want you to do well, will stand guard before your fear and sorry… september thought about her pink-and-yellow teacups in the sink back home, and how she had hated them and their slimy clumps of leaves.  she felt poorly on it now, thinking of tea as a thing alive, which wanted only the best for her.” (pages 71-72, the girl who fell beneath fairyland and led the revels there)

♥

“but she had not, in her estimation, ever managed a good poem.  hers came out fitting together more like a broken faucet and an angry milk-goat.”  (page 170, the girl who fell beneath fairyland and led the revels there)

♥

“but shadows keep secrets better than anyone.” (page 257, the girl who fell beneath fairyland and led the revels there)

♥

“you cannot argue with fate, whatever Candlestick says, she thought.  you can only defy it.” (page 185, the girl who soared over fairyland and cut the moon in two)

♥

“of course, all shoes are magic– they get you where you’re going and tell you where you’ve been.  they tell your secrets, can’t hold their tongues a bit.”  (page 167, the boy who lost fairyland)

♥

“you have to wear through three pairs of shoes to get anything done.  everyone knows that.  once you wear through the third pair, whatever story you’ve got yourself into has to hurry up and finish its business so the next one can get going.  call it a head start.”  (page 173, the boy who lost fairyland)

♥

“a powerful shhh is the final test of any great librarian, and Ell had been practicing.”  (page 6, the girl who raced fairyland all the way home)

♥

“and all four of them disappeared with a sound like a date-stamp clonking down, leaving behind a puff of dust that smelled strongly of dictionaries, first editions, and the complete works of everyone ever.” (page 106, the girl who raced fairyland all the way home)

♥

“well, it sounded very exciting.  and it had a lot of exclamation points in it, which is one of the signs of an excellent book.”  (page 196, the girl who raced fairyland all the way home)

♥

thank you, catherynne m. valente, for turning your book character’s favourite book into five whole real, readable books “for everyone forever” in this fairyland series.  we curtsey humbly to your queenly reign of fairyland.