bilibin redux

all the world's a stage

In an alternate universe, I'd be a theater tech geek designing backdrops and working the lights. Once upon a time, my mom enrolled me in community theater as a very young kid for something to do in the summer. I loved the mystique of stage makeup and spotlights, but was shy about lines and thought that the repertoire was corny, because after all, we were seven years old.

One was about dinosaurs, and there's a VHS tape in the basement that involves yours truly in a lavender stegasaurus costume with orange felt spikes down the back and huge specks of glitter. This is also the only time my hair's ever been fire-engine red and glittery, which was crazy hard to wash out before school the next week. Next year the musical was about deer in the suburbs and the humans that didn't understand that they want the land too. I thought this was kind of stupid, and we ended up moving shortly after, and that was the end of my theatrical career pretty much.

I had a guidance counselor at the community college be convinced that I was going to have a career path in theater tech, and the whole world still fascinates me even if it's from a distance. One of my coworkers used to build sets at Karamu House and told me about how he'd start the designs on the way out of the dressing room so that by the time the actors were onstage, they were already in character. I'd never thought of that before.  I don't do plays very much, most of the time because they're kind of expensive and usually don't look super interesting and are sometimes terrible, but I do try to do at least one Shakespeare thing a year, because picnics and the Queen's English tend to go well together...

Alexandre Benois:

 

leon bakst

ivan bilibin

Ivan Bilibin

Upon discovery of the aforementioned Vasnetsov, a swanky art book ordered through the channels available introduced us to the work of Ivan Bilibin, an illustrator with a similar subject matter, influenced by folk art, art nouveau, Japanese prints, lubok, and medieval illuminations, all things very dear to the heart of yours truly.

Vasilisa the Beautiful is one of my personal favorites, due to her Cinderella character being both beautiful and smart, dealing with the likes of wicked stepmothers and Baba Yaga. While dealing with seemingly impossible tasks and unreasonable people, especially in the form of jealous and irrational old women probably rings too close to reality, there's no disputing that this picture is badass in the most Slavic folklore way possible.

 

Although his life was cut short by the brutal siege of Leningrad in World War II, he did illustrations, advertisements, and set designs that somehow manage to be both epic and whimsical at the same time. 

 

more here.