Grimm's Fairy Tales

For the past several years many of my artworks have suggested a story line.

My most recent artwork is inspired by Grimm's Fairy Tales. The artwork shown here is entitled, "Grandmother, What Big Ears You Have," and it's a bit of a twist on what happens in "Little Red Riding Hood." In the actual story, the wolf dresses up like Red Riding Hood's grandmother.

In my lithograph, on the other hand, a grandmother is wearing a wolf's mask. And oh, those hands, and the jewelry on them, look a whole lot like mine.

The first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales was published in 1812. Many people don't realize that the tales were not written by the Grimm's Brothers. The brothers collected these oral tales from various parts of Europe and wrote them down. The stories that were told for entertainment and most carried lessons in morality and human behavior. The unabridged versions of Grimm's Fairy Tales (unlike the sanitized Disney versions) are often filled with violence. Moreover, they are full of traditional gender roles which can be interesting to examine. Women and girls are often rewarded or being passive and virtuous. These passive women lack intuition and frequently, plain common sense and find themselves in perilous circumstances. They are almost always saved by men. They are often rewarded with marriage. More aggressive women, like Cinderalla's stepsisters, are chastized by having their eyes pecked out by birds. Yikes!