Amelia's Magazine 10th Anniversary limited edition book

Please pinch me! I have been told by none other than Amelia Gregory herself that my illustration At the Root of The Stars will be included in the Amelia's Magazine 10th anniversary limited edition book! Now is the time to be woken up by the alarm clock or to be given a slap in the face after my passing out - I passed out after drinking too much cinnamon tea, obviously, it cannot be true. I will try to keep my composure while I'm writing this post, so that you do not start thinking I have gone completely mad.

This is such a great opportunity that is presented to me, and such a privilege. It is bliss to have my work shown among those of artists I revere, and to be involved in a project that is unhoped-for for an illustrator and book lover as myself: have my work published in a book, an actual one made of paper - a book you can actually put on a shelf and show off ad nauseam.

Less than a month ago Amelia Gregory offered artists and writers to take part in an open brief on the theme of 'That Which We Do Not Understand' to celebrate the ten years of Amelia's Magazine in due form.

On this occasion she decided to put the magazine back into print by releasing a special issue, a limited edition book! One that "will feature specialist gold spot printing on beautiful paper with great binding and a special gold foiled celebration cover". This is such a relief to still find people dedicated to the Art of book printing in our digitalized world.

I am excited about this project and hope it will eventually take shape. The contributors have been very inspired I must say, how beautiful the artworks are so far! Well it is not surprising with such a theme! If you are curious to have a peek at the other submissions, here is a list for you:

Science and Magic by Anna Jane Searle, The Empress by Daria Hlazatova, Mater Gaia by Niall Grant, Shamaness by Essi Kimpimäki, Dark Matter by Liv Bargman, Crystal Girl by Fay Brown, Moon Rabbits by Carly Watts, Wormholes by Adam Corn, Rhiannon beneath her castle by Sarah Tanat Jones, Crystals by Lindsay Lombard, Marie Laveau by Sophie Illustrates, Modern Witchcraft by Maia Fjord, Danse Macabre by Yelena Bryksenkova, and many many many more!

We need your help! A KICKSTARTER campaign has been launched in order to fund the publishing of the book. Please pledge and spread the word. There are rewards for those who get involved on kickstarter ;)

If you have not read my previous post yet, you will find below my attempt at explaining my piece At the Root of the Stars.

I have always been fascinated by storytelling and superstitions, the fertile imagination people have when they try to explain the world surrounding them. My illustration is somewhat a celebration of that imagination. To add my contribution to the great tapestry of tales - as I like to call it -, I came up with my personal explanation of the origin of the stars, how they were created.

It all began in a far off forest, at night, a very long time ago. A witch and her unicorn were weaving stars while crows hung them up in the sky. The witch cut her beautiful red hair and let it spin into golden stars with the help of the unicorn's corn. There are references made to the spinning wheel, the idea of weaving, spinning - a beautiful allegory for storytelling.