This is an ever so lovely print of my pen and ink drawing of Little Red Riding Hood. It is a high quality, professional Giclee print (using museum quality, archival inks) and a delicious "smooth velvet" watercolor paper. The watermark will NOT appear on the print. Depicted is a very unique Little Red; not only is she pregnant, but she is half-wolf. The print measures at 8 1\/2 x 11 inches with an additional quarter inch border (ideal for framing). These are numbered and signed on the back. Copyright belongs to Anangka Arts (Sarah Elizabeth Taz Schantz), 2007. Any reproduction of this image will infringe upon this protection.
Your print will be mailed to you first class secured inside a cello sleeve, supported by chipbaord and inserted into an unbendable cardboard envelope; this envelope will then be marked obsessively in red with the words, "Do Not Bend!!!". Included will be a detailed write-up done in a Papyrus font as follows:
“The Longest Night of the Year” or “The Shortest Day of the Year”—this drawing was not only inspired by Little Red Riding Hood herself, but by Angela Carter’s short story,
“The Company of Wolves” from her collection, The Bloody Chamber. In summary, a young girl (as is always told) is sent into the woods with a basket of goodies for her ailing grandmother.However, in Carter’s tale, there are no budding flowers to lure her from the path because the events unfold on Yule, at the dead of winter, and on “the [very] night of Solstice, the hinge of the year when things do not fit together as well as they should.” The girl, this time, is wooed by a stranger, a young man who challenges her to a race of “who can get to Granny’s first?” But, of course, because he is truly werewolf, and not a man, he wins, with plenty of time to devour the old lady. But when the girl arrives, seeing what has happened, she reacts quite
contrary to our expectations. Instead of trembling or weeping, she calmly takes “off her scarlet shawl, the colour of poppies, the colour of sacrifices, the colour of her menses, and, [because]her fear did her no good, she ceased to be afraid.” She tosses the garment into the fire
(a dismissal of humanity) and embraces him, now nude, and in the familiar comfort of her grand-mother’s house, serenaded by a cacophony of the howling wolves outside, she is wed to this beast, half-man, half-wolf. This story is deliberately raw, but works at the same metaphors as did the
original fairy tale: the rite of passage into womanhood, menarche, rebellion, seduction, and time and its inevitable rotation of cycles, where maiden replaces crone. But perhaps the most alluring detail is how this story reflects the dichotomy of man and beast, exposing in this case,
the animal within the human, where even a girl-child finds salvation in the savage wild. Instead of being so unnatural, so domestic—clothed and housed, dining on cooked flesh and using chamber pots, she is reborn to Nature herself, becoming She who runs with wolves, emulating
the footsteps of the goddess archetype-- Artemis, Diana, Lilith . . .
In the illustration, the artist has depicted the maiden of Carter’s tale an entire year after her wedding night. It is Solstice again. In fact, she now carries that night eternal within her sacred basket. A tree springs up behind her, proving that life still thrives despite an all-encompassing
winter. But that potential is made all the more obvious by Little Red’s pregnancy and the rush of her waters breaking. But who does she birth? A brand new babe or Herself?
I embrace international customers (in fact I adore the idea of my art circulating places I most likely will never be able to go) but I do ask that you convo me before purchase in case there are any additional shipping charges to apply; I understand that some of you are willing to pay any additional cost and are concerned that the item will sell out--in this case, go ahead with purchase but expect a pay pal invoice billing you for any difference and that I will need receipt of both payments before I can ship. At this time, these are the best ways on Etsy to deal with the varying costs of global mail.
Please allow for up to one week for me to process and ship your order (although it rarely takes longer than one business day). Thanks so much for looking and for buying handmade! We simply can't afford not to in this day and age!