Rob Ryan...

I enjoyed the Lotte Reiniger animation yesterday very much, as they reminded me of fairystory books my grandmother used to have in Germany, when I was growing up...Aschenputtel (Cinderella) was always one of my favourites.

As I have mentioned before, European versions of the fairystories seem to be a bit more on the gruesome side - as we saw yesterday, the one stepsister cuts off her toes to get her foot in the slipper, and the second one chops a bit off her heel...I dread to think what that slipper looked like after those two had tried it on! Also at the end, the sisters get their eyes pecked out- just for good measure! Here is an English translation, if anyone wants to read it...

http://www.fln.vcu.edu//grimm/cinder.html

Anyway, this animation reminded me of a contemporary artist called Rob Ryan, who uses cut-out paper to make silhouette designs - his are not animated, but still very beautiful, and have that European fairytale quality about them...

http://www.misterrob.co.uk/?page_id=39





I don't know if you can read the poem in the second piece, but I rather like it...