Author: Zach Irving

Secret Chamber

By Alexis Chun

              In this painting, I wanted to portray the idea of the fairytale villain as someone or something that exists within us. When I was choosing which characters to paint, it was important to me that I choose a male villain and female protagonist. In addition to illustrating that there can be a villain within the hero, I also wanted to show the presence of an internalized male gaze. This intention led me to choose Bluebeard as my villain, and this painting became very inspired by Margaret Atwood’s short story, Bluebeard’s Egg. My painting shows a girl writing in a journal, but inside the journal is a mirror that reflects not her own image, but the image of Bluebeard. The Bluebeard and the girl’s skin and hair are painted in blue tones, while the girl’s clothes are orange. By using opposing colors, I created a direct contrast between the way the girl perceives and presents herself, and her true nature.

Medium: Acrylic paint on paper

Once Upon a Podcast

Morgan and Olivia

Director’s Note:

This project was inspired by our weekly traditions of cozying up to watch the drama of The Bachelorette unfold with our roommates. Once Upon a Podcast allowed us to critically analyze something that we already enjoy, ABC’s The Bachelorette, and to see it through a new lens with the context of our acquired knowledge about fairy tales from this course. The purpose of this project was to bring attention to the manner in which The Bachelor and The Bachelorette exploit the romantic motifs and themes that fairy tales are often reduced to in popular culture, while choosing to leave out many of the deeper analyses that we have discovered throughout this course. We discuss topics such as love vs. lust, loneliness and abandonment, the pursuit of love, and the ideal and unrealistic “reality show” expectations. We chose a video podcast format because it is a popular and convenient media form that has potential to be relatable for many young people and we thought it could reach our audience in a similar way to how the Bachelor Franchise engages us. Enjoy!

Morgan & Olivia

ATU Index Digital Companion

By Veronica Backer-Peral

For my final project, I created a digital version of Hans-Jorg-Uther’s The Types of International Folktales, more commonly known as the ATU fairytale index.

Click here to go to the website

Throughout this project I learned to merge my passion for computer science, data analysis and web design with a field that I had never previously thought could be compatible with computers. Not only did I learn how to design a website and use JavaScript to supplement HTML code, I also got to familiarize myself a lot more with the ATU Index and even query the data using a Neo4J database.

Princess Timeline

By Lianlen Joy Go Distor

For this project, I decided to make a mini timeline of my Disney princess choices as I grew up. This project is also meaningful as I wrote about it in my first discussion board for the class. Overall, this project is a self-exploration because I wanted to visually track my choice of Disney princesses and how I switched identifying with each character as I grew up.

The Process

The Ambiguity of Villainy

By Erica Alston

The Brothers Grimm version of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” is a tale of villainy regarding the main characters: the king, the princesses, and the old soldier. Depending on the perspective from which one reads the story, each of the characters engages in some sort of villainy. The king locks up his daughters every night, trying to take away their freedom and the dancing that they love. There is no indication that the princesses are in danger, so the king is controlling for little reason. The princesses drug the men that take on the challenge of discovering their midnight whereabouts, leading to their deaths as they fail the challenge. Finally, the old soldier only wants to be king. He takes away the source or the princesses’ happiness for the purpose of becoming heir to the throne. The story does not have a clear indication of who is the villain because each character commits villainous acts.

The paintings are visual representations of each characters’ villainy: the princesses and the drugged wine, the king and his locks, and the old soldier and his new crown.

Medium: Digital

Read the story here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctt1c0gms9.4.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A08b2d464c875e7fb62c0436e1ac332ca

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