The Fruit Begets The Shadow

The Fruit; 2003 12x16 oil on canvas; Loree Harrell

Cinderella Meets The Shadow
from Sandwich In A Glass
Loree Harrell; 1999

I try once and again to write fairy tales, but somehow they always turn back in on themselves and show me their dark underbellies. Or perhaps more truly, they show me mine.

There are no princes here. No one's life is all cute little bunnies and sweet-smelling pussy cats and blue skies - fairy tales and nursery rhymes are some of the most gruesome stories ever told. Ever read any of the originals before they got sanitized for our western tastes? The gingerbread house is the most terrifying place on the planet. Ring-Around-The-Rosie is about the Plague. Maybe we just understood layers back then. Didn't have such a tendency to accept face value.

Writers have only one thing to tell, one thing to sell.
You can't be Nice and be a Writer. Choose.
Everyone is not going to like you. You will sometimes step on some toes. When you do it right, you're going to feel like you're walking around in the world with no seat in your jeans.
Tell your stories. Tell them clearly, tell them honestly, or shut the hell up and go write advertising copy. Or formulaic potboilers... there can be money and accolades in those, too. Lots, sometimes.

Oh. And don't lose your sense of humor in the process.

Cry when you have to, but laugh when you feel like it, too. Let me in to feel that happen and I'll buy every word you write.

copyrights art & writing; Loree Harrell; 1999-2003

Portfolio at
www.artwanted.com/loree