Folktale Week Illustrations: Charm and East of the Sun, West of the Moon

I look forward to it every year! It's time for Folktale Week. Hosts post their 7 prompts for artists and/or writers to create illustrations or tell stories on these themes inspired by folktales, folklore, fables, myth and fairytales! There’s always a lot of magic submissions and it’s open to all. Most of the action is on Instagram (see @folktaleweek for more information) but you can find artists and writers sharing on other socials too. I am going to post my new illustrations here. And now Day 5: Charm.

My 8" x 10" hand-carved and hand-printed lino block print illustration of the beloved fairytale East of the Sun, West of the Moon shows the bewitched polar bear prince holding the charm, a magic silver bell along with his bride with the aurora in the night sky beyond them. Printed in dark blue ink, with fluorescent green northern lights, pink cheeks and silver bell, on lovely, delicate, Japanese paper.

The Norwegian fairytale tells of a bewitched polar bear who persuades a peasant to grant him his youngest and prettiest daughter's hand in marriage, promising riches in return. The kindly bear makes her a magnificent castle, and presents her with a magic silver bell that she can use to summon him. He is able to return to his man form at night, but only appears to his bride after she extinguishes the light, so she never gets to see his original form. Feeling homesick, she asks to visit her family; the bear grants her wish on the condition she never be alone with her mother. Her mother makes persistent attempts to speak with her privately, and when she succeeds and hears her daughter's tale, she assumes the bear must be a troll and tells her daughter to light her candle at night and check.

When the daughter examines her husband she falls in love with the handsome prince asleep in bed whom she accidentally awakes. He explains he has been cursed by his wicked stepmother the witch-queen. Had his wife not seen his true form for a full year the curse would be broken, but now he go to witch-queen's palace which is east of the sun, west of the moon and he must marry the witch's daughter. 

The young wife then goes on a long quest to find and rescue her husband and free him from the curse. It's a wonderful tale of courage, kindness and adventure and she ultimately frees her prince.

As we warm the Arctic

As we warm the Arctic, thermochromic linocut, 9.25" x 12.5" by Ele Willoughby, 2022

I was a bit flummoxed by he #printersolstice prompt conceptual art. Then I remembered an idea I had toyed with for some time.

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"This is the Arctic with the range of the polar bear: its habitat. And this is what happens when we heat it.”


This is an interactive lino block print which changes colour! A map of the Arctic looking down on the North pole is handprinted in a delicate cream colour on white Japanese kozo (or mulberry) washi paper. On top of the map, I have printed the range of the polar bear in blue complete with a polar bear and the aurora (or Northern Lights) and the word habitat in fuchsia. I have mixed the blue and fuchsia inks myself: they are made with thermochromic temperature sensitive pigments. If these inks rise about 30 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit) they turn colourless, so if you heat the print, for instance with a hair dryer, the range, polar bear and word habitat all disappear. The print is called “As we warm the Arctic” and is about habitat loss due to climate change.

Did you say park?

I made a custom order pillow for the husband of a lovely customer, of their delightful looking dog. He really did appear to have the sweetest nature in all the photos. So, I wanted to use the block with the dog's portrait, and I could only imagine I'd captured that moment the dog heard the word, "park".

Lately, I've been printing second editions of popular prints, if I've run out of stock. Like my Vixen in the Snow, Aurora Borealis with the polar bear, and screech owl. Next, I plan some quail and maybe portraits of Minouette, herself.

Minouette news

It's been a little quiet here on the blog.... because I've been trying to take a little semi-maternity leave! That's right - our son Gabriel was born November 28th at 6:49 am, at 3720 g or 8 lbs. 3 oz. We're both happy and healthy, if very tired.

But, I wanted to make a little post to say that I was very happy and flattered to see that my shop, along with several friends from the Toronto Etsy Street Team were featured today by Toronto Life as their 10 local shops to know.

TEST is well represented! Toronto Life included in their list: Cinders McLeod, Alison Gledhill of Grace Design, minouette, Marissa of Sea Flower Studios, Michelle of thunderpeep, Anthony of Route401, and Casey Von Esteban.


Check out Toronto Life's complete list here!

Today I made a polar bear speak Italian

It's true - though very briefly. I took one of my polar bear proofs and used copper tape to make a spiral on the back, following this tutorial for paper speakers from the Kit-of-No-Parts by Hannah Perner-Wilson. I hooked up the controlling circuit for high current loads with a digital pin on my new Arduino Uno microcontroller (ciruit design by Tom Igoe, shown below, though I ignored the potentiometer, so my simple speaker has no volume control... though I could add one - the speaker is connected where the motor would otherwise go). So the parts needed are: Arduino with power (I used USB connection to my laptop), some jumper wires, a transitor, an extra 9V battery, the print with its copper tape spiral and a magnet (I used the magnet from within an old junked harddrive, because this is both free and a very strong magnet). Then after trying some simple tones, and basic modifications to C programs which come as examples with the Arduino, I tried running Leah Buechley's Simple Arduino Audio Samples tutorial. It's a software solution which lets you play a 4 second sample, so long as it is only 8 kHz and mono - without adding anything else to your microcontroller. It comes with a sample of someone saying 'Arduino Uno' with a proper Italian accent. It is rather cool to hear the print itself vibrating to make the sound of an Italian woman speaking. Now, I know that some of the above may read as goobledegook to anyone unfamiliar with basic electronics or programming, however the point you should take away from this is that it is now very posible for anyone to buy some simple open source parts (for about $25 - $30), follow some on-line tutorials and make their 2D artwork itself produce sound! It is in fact posible to do this even if you do not understand the circuit or the software (though, I would encourage anyone to try to follow that too, as with most things, it's easier than you think).



The next step to make some prints which interact with the viewer (listener?) audibly! Thanks to Synap for helping me get some appropriate sound samples! There will be more of this to come (I cannot bring myself to say 'stay tuned' as it is just too corny a pun).

Polar Bear and Aurora lightbox & art+electronics resources

I've got another sneak peek for you. These are a couple of basic videos I shot myself (obviously) of the construction and finished project. I'm lucky enough to be able to get some help from the professional photographer in the household and hope to have some better videos to share in the near future. Though, it is no mean feat to photograph something which emits changing patterns of light... so he must really love me to embark on this project, and as it will require some labour, it may take some time. In the meanwhile, you can watch this:





Other than that, I built a prototype of my Schrödinger's cat which incorporates some simple circuits so that the poison and cat disappear at the flick of a switch! I'll share it with you when I've got something a little more polished than my breadboard and copper tape circuit. I've been thinking about how best to let the user interact with electrically heated thermochromic prints. It's funny that I'm suddenly thinking of a 'user' of art, rather than a viewer.

Also, I've gathered together a 'Resources' page with links to several of the sites I've found which are useful to artists and makers who want to incorporate some electronics, 'smart' materials, and other scientifically-fueled interactivity (like thermo- and photochromic materials, or shape memory alloys) into their work. This includes sites with information, projects, tutorials and a variety of suppliers. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Polar bear and Aurora Borealis

A relaxed polar bear sits back in the snow and admires the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights, in this lino block print. The linocut is printed in a gradation of black through cobalt blue to white, on Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper, 11 inches by 14 inches (28 cm by 35.6 cm). There are seven prints in the edition.

I've been thinking a lot about the poles, and animals in the remarkable environment of the high arctic (and antarctic). A second theme in my work has been light in various forms. How could I resist the beauty of the aurora, where cosmic rays come to play with the geomagnetic field?

Did you know that polar bears are the world's largest land carnivore? They are beautiful and deserve to thrive and see a healthy, robust habitat, much more so then they have of late.... but make no mistake, polar bears are not cute. Polar bears are deadly. Should you ever meet one, be sure to see it first - your only other chance is to look too skinny to be a seal or have enough fat content to be worth the effort. It's not like polar bears are interested in eating people; they are not. But, a well-clothed Arctic explorer might look like a mammal with a layer of blubber. They are the reason that earth scientists I know, who've worked in the high arctic, have to take a rifle, even to the outhouse (which is open on top to better scan the horizon for fast-moving, camouflaged, predators). Furthermore, like other bears, they are smart and curious. There is a reason they are called Ursus maritimus; they spend most of their time at sea. They've been known to board vessels and ships in the Arctic ocean need to post a bear watch. Sometimes I wonder why I am so keen to get myself sent to the Arctic, but I'm not completely naive. I know hypothermia isn't the only risk.



This print is actually inspired by the aurora and the potential for making more light boxes... I have the guts of a second light box in progress, which will use this print, two types of rgb LEDs, and gels to try and capture the feeling of the Northern Lights. I considered using electroluminescent (EL) paper... which I may still explore. EL materials are often that eerie pale green, and since they need an inverter, they make a sort of humming noise which is very apt. When I've witnessed the aurora, there has sometimes been an associated crackling sound.

I remember my father, who grew up in Northern Ontario (both closer to the pole and further from light pollution) being astounded to learn that his children had only seen the Northern Lights a handful of times. He's lived in Toronto for almost 40 years and might have noticed their absence. Though Victoria isn't that much further north, I saw them several times a year when I was there - including when I was at sea. The most spectacular display however, was when I was in Georgian Bay as a teenager. I'll never forget it.

Renaissance Polar Bear

Here's something I've been working on. I've had this polar bear wearing a ruff, in my head for two years. He needed out. So I put him on paper (variety of Japanese washi, pencil, pen and ink, acrylic ink, vintage geological map of the arctic with embroidery floss). I got interested in the possibilities of working just with texture and pattern making those monochromatic 'chunky pages' for swaps. Somehow, the aurora was nonetheless called for.... I've been hoarding vintage frames.



The thing about bears is that they can stand on two legs, but they are not shaped like us. Their heads to not sit at the top, and as his back appears to hunch away from his ruff, I wonder in hindsight if people will misinterpret it as an anorak, though his coat is rather Henry VIII, so I hope it is clear.



A lot of the Japanese papers have iridescence or gold or silver foil laminae (haha! there's a word) so it changes in the light.




I like the reflections of the sky light.

I was going to have him more off to the side, to indicate the vast arctic emptiness, but I couldn't resist the 'Mackenzie King Island'.

William Lyon Mackenzie King
Sat in the middle and played with string
He loved his mother like anything
William Lyon Mackenzie King

Or at least, that's how I remember Dennis Lee's poem. I also recall visiting his home in Ottawa, with my family, when I was a child.* The guide told us that William Lyon Mackenzie King, who lead this country (successfully) through WWII, used to consult his mother about affairs of state. Which would not have been unreasonable, except, she was, um, deceased. Further, he apparently consulted his beloved dogs - also deceased. And, the position of the hands of the clock. But, you shouldn't quote me on that. This is what I recall from a tour guide's story, sometime in the 80's.** (Actually, I just checked the wikipedia entry and the 'Personal Life' section is far more salacious. Like something straight out of Gravity's Rainbow.)

This is posted with the ulterior motive of inspiring F. in wrangling her former downstairs neighbour. There will be more of this sort of thing... for the art show, which will materialize. The bear says so.


*I believe we visited every single historic site between here and Lunenberg, Nova Scotia. Sincere indoctrination - it was effective. See, I care about Canadian history.
**His grandfather was the revolutionary William Lyon Mackenzie, one-time mayor of Toronto, general shit-disturber, who donned three bulky overcoats In case the bullets flew.