My Angel is a Centerfold

Here's my 2010 Centerfold! The right side of it, that is. In progress. There's going to be blank pages this year with illustrations and this is one of them.

Since this is Irish-looking art, I want to clear up a misconception about the Celts. The Celts are no such people. As in, Celtic is such a broad term that it is useless. It is like saying, "The people of Germanic tribes and maybe Portuguese butter sellers, though also Roman with the possibility of Persian matrilineage, but more generally Northern Africa who also have intermarried with the people of the British Isles and settled in what is now Ireland. Who fought wars with each other within the last 4,000 years." I mean.... *whatever*.

The people who really deserve recognition, in my most humble (kidding:) opinion are the Tuatha Dé Danann. They arrived on earth many thousands of years ago- a graceful and loving people. They are historically regarded as mythological, but they're only mythological because their physical creations are mostly gone and all their skills have been attributed to violent red-heads that killed them in the Emerald Isles. The intimidation they experienced forced them to turn themselves into faeries and live underground in the hills. They still interact with humans but usually only when they have the advantage of magic. They were more likely to become human long ago. Storytellers speak of faery people as if they are a moot point. You can recognize them by their long slender bodies and dancing ways. They've a tendency to rhyme, speak in riddles, and be persnickity with their speech. (As an aside, Van Morrison is clearly straight out of the underground. Like- fresh off the gnome boat.) Anyway, from what I see, one can have fairy race characteristics as a result of faeries intermarrying with humans. The Tuathe De Danaan are not gone, and one can speak with them. They have a part in the land of gold. The gold working seen today in Ireland came from them, as did all the exceptional arts of music, poetry, writing, and illustration.

Sarah and I took a trip together this Sunday. In one part of the adventure we opened a book in an old used bookstore of Spirits of the Darkness. We both got chills, Sarah shivered said no no no, I cried, and we shut the book. And that began a discussion of what it is that brings demons to oneself, and how one keeps them away. We both decided generally it's best not go there too often, it only seems to cause trouble. So that's all I have to say about that. Here's Sarah and me at the ocean!
Here's Sarah on the water during our picnic lunch Speaking of Irish people and picnics, I got to see my Dad yesterday! Here he is telling a story.