Musings on Moving

I remember when I moved into my college dorm way back when I first graduated High School. It was my first time away from home for an extended period of time, and I packed fairly lightly since I was sharing a tiny room with a roommate. Not a month went by when I realized that I missed my copy of The Lord of the Rings terribly and I asked my Dad to send them out to me as a care package, along with more of my art stuff. Fandom and fantasy art go hand-in-hand for me it seems. That's why this blog is becoming more focused on the fan part of things, with my art as an expression of that.

Believe it or not, there are fantasy artists out there who don't care a flying fig about the books, movies, and other fantasy artwork out there. They just jumped on the bandwagon and got in tight with a manufacturer and viola! Fake Fantasy Art. If you're a true fantasy fan artist, like me, you started out showing your stuff at the SF&F conventions, because you were going there anyway! But I digress. It seems that anytime I move, or begin a new phase in my life, I re-read The Lord of the Rings. Nowadays, I tend to just watch the movies again because it feeds more of my senses.

When I was painting the rooms in this house, I put my CD from The Return of the King in the boombox and went to work. Now we are just gathering the last bits from the garage at the other house and we are done! All I have to decide is how I will next experience Middle Earth in celebration of the next great adventure in my life, having just one house!

P.S. Please let me know if you like the new masthead for the blog!! ~BHB~

Recovering

Today was very cold and windy here in Minnesota, so much so there was some snow. Lucky for us it melted when it hit the ground, because the ground is still warm. We have been known to have Halloween storms in these parts, and I've been known to stay in till it blows over and not help with the shoveling. So it's as good a time as any to talk about the Queen of Annwyn, because her husband the King is known to take his hounds and ride the skies on nights like tonight, to gather the souls of the dead (or not so dead) to bring back to his realm. It' s known as the Wild Hunt, and one day I hope to do a painting of that scene, but not just yet.

The Queen of Annwyn sits with her red-eared hound in her realm, with small goblins lurking about, and a Raven nearby. The skull was fun to paint as I recall, and I loved painting the misty background and gnarly tree limbs. Prints are available of various sizes, as well as the framed version above. But more about Annwyn or Annwn or Annwfn fro the Encyclopedia Mythica:

There are various entry points into Annwn, namely Lundy Island and Glastonbury Tor. There is a legend of an itenerant Welsh saint named Collen entering Gwyn's palace within the Tor in order to banish him by sprinkling holy water around.

Contained within the alleged Book of Taleisin is "The Spoils of Annwn," an obscure, inauthentic Welsh poem dating from perhaps the tenth century. It is the tale of a raid on the part of Arthur and his knights through the underworld, questing for a magical, talismanic cauldron in the custody of nine maidens. Only seven survive this perilous expedition. Due to the pagan substance of the poem, it has been claimed to be a foreshadowing of later Grail Quests.The number nine relates to real groups of nine priestesses in pre-Christian, Celtic society. Geoffrey of Monmouth tells of a sisterhood of nine led by Morgan le Fay in his poetic Vita Merlini. The coven was located on the Isle of Apples, or Avalon, another otherworld sometimes identified with Annwn.