No, I am not away with the fairies!
I only discovered this 1930s illustrator today, Cecily Mary Barker, and am not normally a manic fairy fan, but these illustrations have lifted my spirits! They are so beautiful and so creative: each fairy is a representation of his or her specific flower. For example, Lavender Fairy is portrayed not only looking like the lavender plant but also tending to wounds, lavender being an antiseptic.
The things that nearly brought me to tears while watching this video were the sweet faces, the playfulness, the originality, the variety, the natural hair styles, the beautiful and creative clothing and footwear, and the general feeling of serenity: these fairies are the children we wish we'd been and would like to know.
It's bittersweet though, as things that touch your heart often are nowadays. Childhood innocence is almost a thing of the past but can still be enjoyed via vintage art, the testimonials of how it used to be. Have all previous generations longed for the past or is it just ours? Is our nostalgia so strong because our demise has been so sudden? Are we living in a unique time when our not-so-distant past is so starkly different to our reality we are tortured by the gulf? Has a civilisation ever deteriorated as quickly as ours? Yes, these illustrations are rose-tinted but at least they or their like were held up as the epitome of childhood. Now, what do we have to aim for? What is now held up as the pinnacle of perfection? Miley Cyrus? Lady Gaga? Ariana Grande?
I bought my daughter a book of illustrations and poems of this artist for a Christmas present. The world around us may be ugly but that doesn't mean we can't fill our homes with beautiful sights, sounds and smells: a world apart. That's all we can do: make our homes a sanctuary for how we wish things could be.
I, for one, will be poring over the pages marveling at every wondrous detail.
Enjoy this achingly beautiful video...
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