B is for Broken by Beauty

         (If you’re waiting for April to officially begin the April A to Z Blog Challenge, don’t mind me!  I’m just getting a head start.

You can read my Theme Reveal Post here, and when April comes I’ll direct you to the correct letter every day.)

        My A to Z Blog Challenge theme this year is Bittersweetness & Light, my new collection of hope-filled, joy-inducing short stories, poems, and art.

        “Broken by Beauty” is one of the poems in the book, and today I’ll simply post the entire thing.

     It is possible

On a night of snow

When porch lights make yellow diamonds

Of fat cold flakes spangling the twigs,

Spangling the luminous blue silence,

To be broken by beauty.

     To be broken open

Like an alabaster egg in April,

Hatching forth to giggling white blossoms

Scenting every incredulous bird-song breath

Of air turned giddy with life;

Hatching like front doors 

Scattering their people to the sidewalks.

     It is possible

On a red-gold afternoon

When every maple impersonates chrysanthemums,

Flinging implausible color to the piercing freshness of the sky,

And the festive crinkle of fallen applause to those who drag their feet,

To be broken by beauty.

     To be broken open

Like a dry crack in crumbling earth

Unfolding to fertile black beneath an impetuous rain,

Exhaling mud-scented breath to grateful leaves

That dance like sparkling children in the sprinkler;

Unfolding like frail smiles

Fluttering along the check-out line.

     It is all possible.

        Some other B words that have to do with my project are of course the Book itself, Bittersweetness & Light, the Kickstarter Backers whose support made it possible, and the Bad News that skews our perception of the world.  This poem is a reminder that even though bad news grabs all our attention (in part because we’re actually hard-wired to pay more attention to it), it really is only one part of what’s going on in the world.

        Marketing Moral: Are you boycotting Amazon?  Indie bookstores are unlikely to stock a little-known book like this, but they will usually special-order it for you if you ask.  (Bittersweetness & Light is also at Barnes & Noble if you find them less offensive, or available directly from me if you don’t mind paying for shipping.)

        Proper Moral:  It is all possible.  Don’t ever let that Bad News convince you to give up on the Good stuff.

        How much time do you spend doom-scrolling because you want to be a conscientious, informed citizen of the world?  Have you ever considered spending an equal amount of time being conscientiously informed about positive things?

[Picture: Snowflakes, rubber block prints, and Leaves, digital by AEGNydam from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]

A is for Arches

         (My A to Z Blog Challenge theme this year is Bittersweetness & Light, my new collection of hope-filled, joy-inducing fantasy and sci fi short stories, poems, and art.  I’ll be sharing lots of excerpts of art, stories, and poetry, and I’ll also be sharing some of the background on why we urgently need joyful stories.  If you like strange creatures, magical worlds, and being reminded of the good to be found in this world, come along with me.)

        These arches are a mixed media illustration: a collage of papers which had been printed using a collagraph and a gelli plate.  To give a little printmaking background, a collagraph is a printing plate built as a collage (which you can read about in this prior post).  If you press a collagraph plate onto a gelli plate, it removes ink on the raised areas, thus making a sort of reverse, which can then be printed onto paper.  In this case, the paper was pages from an old dictionary.  (You can read about a previous gelli plate experiment of mine here.)

        This illustration appears in my book with a poem called “Love Song in a House of Words.”

    Thin, twining words that thrust their roots between emotion’s masonry,

    Dull, brazen words that glitter like a gong,

    Pebbles of sound that sink at once but leave their spreading rings,

    Deep, dusky words whose rings are blown of smoke,

 

    Take these to build your house, and furnish it with words…

        If it weren’t for the tyranny of the alphabet in the A to Z Challenge, I wouldn’t have started here, since this is neither a typical relief block print like most of my others, nor a particularly representative poem.  In terms of places to begin my introduction of this book, I might have chosen

    Art, in which I could write about how the pictures in this book are not mere illustrations of the text, but an important component of the book in their own right.  I envisioned this as a collection of short stories, poetry, and art, in which all three work together to bring delight…

    Adventure, in which I could write about the adventure of running a Kickstarter campaign and putting together this labor of love, as well as the magical adventures in some of the stories…

    Anxiety, in which I could write about how many of us are feeling an extremely high level of anxiety about the world these days, and how I hope that this book offers in some small way a bit of an Antidote, by reminding us that joy, beauty, and love do still exist all around, if we keep our hearts open to recognizing them, and stand up to support them.

        To find out more about the short stories, poetry, and art - and also about the joy, beauty, and love - I hope you’ll stick with me through the month of April.

        Marketing Moral:   Buy my book!  Okay, that’s not exactly subtle, but it is part of my moral of the entire month.  Throughout the A to Z Challenge I’ll be including a variety of ways to support small-time/indie authors and artists so that we can keep making art and keep bringing light into a world that certainly needs it.  It may seem like no big thing, but in

the words of artist Joey Hartmann-Dow, “Art changes people, and people change the world.”

        Proper Moral: A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it’s even cooler when you get words and pictures together!  I love them both!

        Words or pictures?  Do you have a preferred method of communicating, learning, or processing?

[Picture: Arches, collage by AEGNydam from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]

Theme Revelation: Stories, Poems, and Art

         Now that I’ve been participating in the April A to Z Blog Challenge for many years, I can lead up to this year’s Theme Revelation by way of a little review of themes of the past.

        Did you enjoy last year’s mythical botany in 2024?  This year I’ll have magical dandelions and mushrooms.  If you’ve enjoyed all the fantastical creatures in 2022, 2019, 2018, and 2017, allow me to assure you that this year there will be strange and mysterious creatures including Rainlings, Venusians, ineffable feathersquids, witches’ familiars, a Blue Thing, and of course dragons, to name just a few.  If you enjoyed the magical places we visited in 2021, this year we’ll be travelling to Xyblik’s Cosmic Emporium, the Yem-Thress Zone of Contention, the Home for Dispossessed Familiars, the cloud decks of Venus, and many other strange worlds.  Or perhaps you enjoyed the block prints I featured in 2023, 2020, 2019, and 2017?  Well, I’ll once again be featuring block prints as the vast majority of the illustrations, and this year the block prints will all be my own.  If you enjoyed snippets from my own writing in 2019 and 2018, I’ll be featuring more of my work this your.  And I’ll even continue with my A to Z custom of ending each letter with a moral (or two), because what’s the point of having a pulpit if you can’t preach a bit?

        Here are all those previous years, if you need a quick review…

2024 - The Botany of the Realms of Imagination

2023 - Alphabet Squared: an Alphabet of Block Printed Alphabets

2022 - How to Make a Mythical Creature

2021 - Mythical and Imaginary Places

2020 - Nursery Rhymes (and their Block Printed Illustrations)

2019 - On the Virtues of Beasts of the Realms of Imagination

2018 - Characters from My Own Books

2017 - Block Print Artists

2016 - Mythical Creatures

        And now… What is the theme that allows me to include a sampling of all this most excellent stuff that I hope you’ve enjoyed through the years?  Why, it’s my new book: Bittersweetness & Light, a collection of magical short stories, poetry, and art!  All through the alphabet I’ll be sharing snippets from the book, teasers, fun facts, behind-the-scenes insights, illustrations, and more.  The book was released in January, and has been doing its best since then to bring a little joy and hope into the world wherever it goes.  Goodness knows we need as much sweetness and light as possible, so I hope you’ll join us.

        To start us off today, I’ve got Felicity & Comfort’s Bottled Purrs, the Original & Best Surefire Remedy for Listlessness, Melancholy, Loneliness, & Chills!  Shown here is the version that appears in the book, with colors added digitally from the black and white original, which is a rubber block print.  I find that purrs are utterly fascinating from a scientific standpoint, and also a bit of a mystery as to why humans should find this random animal sound so marvelously comforting.  But whatever the reason, they are definitely a panacea - and when you get them bottled, you don’t even need to worry about allergies!  It’s wise to stock up and make sure you always have plenty on hand, for yourself and to share.

        In my standard A to Z tradition, I’ll be starting early so that I can take a few days off during the month of April.  Join me in getting a jump on the alphabet, or come back in April, when I’ll direct you each day to the correct letter so you can stick with the proper schedule if you prefer.  Either way, I’ll see you soon!

        The moral of this introduction is that I’ll be spending the month trying to show you why my book is almost as good as purring.  But also, the more overwhelming Things feel, the more important it is that we keep reaching out to each other - friends and strangers alike - with all the wisdom, joy, beauty, hope, and humor we can summon.  And since that’s what the A to Z Blog Challenge can do, that’s why I’m here, and that’s why I hope you’ll join me.  To see who else is revealing their A to Z theme, look here.

        Question: Cats or dogs?  Should Felicity & Comfort try bottling tail-wagging, too?

[Picture: Sustainably Harvested, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2020 (originals sold out), from Bittersweetness & Light, 2025 (See NydamPrints.com).]

Early Spring

         It’s that time when Spring is shifting and stretching in her bed, and thinking about rising.  Sprouts of daffodils are pushing up, snowdrops are blooming, and buckets hang on the sugar maples.  There may be more snow to come, but the sprouts will keep sprouting, and soon the last snow will give way to rain and mud, and sunshine scattering itself in crocuses.  Here are a handful of relief block prints to celebrate.

        First up are “Seven Herbs of Early Spring,” looking as if they’re growing right up out of a snowdrift.  I don’t know the identities of these herbs and whether they have the same sort of resonance for people in Japan as daffodil sprouts and snowdrops have for me.  But they seem to be conquering the snow quite boldly.

        Another piece in which the snow still covers the ground is this view of maple sugaring.  These buckets are about full, so we might get a quart of syrup from all this.  I love maple syrup, and the sight of buckets on local trees always makes me smile.

        Here’s a March hare, along with primroses, violets, and daffodils.  We’re still pretty far from any of those flowers here, but March can shift quickly between winter and spring (and sometimes back and forth several times!)  For a little more about March hares, you can read my prior post about Fantasy Rabbits.

        The flowering trees in this next piece also place it a fair bit later in the season, but the grey color scheme seems about right for today.  I like how the grey has a soft texture, and how the distant windows and the white blossoms seem to sparkle.

        Finally, more color on a dark day.  Here’s one of those heavy, dark March rains, given rich color in a reduction block print in which not one of the umbrellas is the classic black.  There’s a lot to like about this piece, but one particularly interesting choice is the mix of colors where I wouldn’t have expected them: the facades of the buildings and the women’s hair.  But this, too, seems fitting for early spring, in which every touch of color is an interesting surprise!

        T.S. Eliot thought that April was the cruelest month, but I’d definitely go with March.  Still, all that exciting spring burgeoning is right around the corner, and each little early hint of it is a treat that I savor.

        For views of early spring by another of my favorites, Asa Cheffetz, see my post Spring Forward.

[Pictures: Seven Herbs of Early Spring, color woodcut by Kamisaka Sekka, 1909-10 (Image from Cleveland Museum of Art);

Maples, woodcut by Nick Wroblewski (Image from nickwroblewski.com);

March, linocut by Jenny Portlock (Image from jennyportlock.art);

Lake Kawaguchi in Spring, wood block print by Okuyama Gihachiro, 1953 (Image from Artelino);

London Rain, reduction linocut by Diana Croft (Image from Kevis House).]

Words of the Month - Ophidian Etymologies

         In honor of the Year of the Snake (which we celebrated with block prints here), today’s words of the month are all words for snakes.

        ophidian - Not exactly in common usage, this is a fancy word meaning “snake-like.”  It comes from the Ancient Greek word for “small snake.”  It now also refers (scientifically) to a group of reptiles including all snakes and a few other reptiles that are more closely related to snakes than other lizards.  But let’s get back to the basics…

        snake - from Old English, from a root meaning “to crawl; creeping thing”

        serpent - from Latin, also from a root meaning “to creep.”  This is the same ultimate root that in Greek became herpeton, which gives us our scientific word herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians.  Serpent is the word that was used to translate the tempter in Genesis, which certainly hasn’t helped its reputation.

        viper - from the Latin word for “snake,” which comes ultimately from the same root meaning “to live” as in vivacious.  In English (in the early 15th century) the meaning narrowed to refer only to venomous snakes.

        venom - this comes by way of French, from Latin, in a long series of shifts in meaning: poison, from drug or medicine, from charm or seduction, from love potion, from a root that meant “to desire” and also gave us Venus.

        adder - from Old English, originally a word for “snake” in general, the sense narrowed to the venomous viper of Britain.  However, the word was originally nadder, and lost its N through faulty separation, which you can read about in the post The Wandering N.

        python - This was the name of the individual giant serpent that Apollo vanquished near Delphi.  The name became the word for particularly large tropical constrictors, beginning via French around 1580.  You can see a post about some other eponyms, What’s in a Name.

        boa - The boa was a kind of large snake mentioned by Pliny in the 1st century CE, but no one knows where that name came from.  By the 1620s the word referred to South American constrictors, and in 1836 it was applied to the scarf of fur or feathers wrapped, like a boa constrictor, around the wearer’s neck and shoulders.

        cobra - This means “snake” in Portuguese, being just the “snake” part of the Portuguese name meaning “snake of the hood.”  The Portuguese came from Latin colubra, another word for “snake,” which is “of uncertain origin.”  The Latin word also gave us colubridae, the scientific name for the largest and most diverse family of snakes, colubrine, which is another fancy word meaning “snake-like,” and Coulobre, the name of a monstrous serpent you can learn about in my post Unique Named Dragons.

        asp - The name of this venomous snake of Egypt entered English around 1520, ultimately from Greek.  Its name meant “round shield,” presumably because of its neck hood.

        From “creeping” to “living,” and from the Fall of humanity to the love potions of Venus, snakes have developed from some interesting roots.  I’m certainly glad not to live in a place where I have to worry about the dangers of snake bites, but I’ve always liked snakes.  How about you?

[Pictures: Rattlesnake, lino-cut by Christopher Wormell, from Teeth, Tails, and Tentacles, 2004;

Viper, linoleum block print by Sebastien G. Orsini from Dans le Mystere des Animaux Sauvages, 2011 (Image from Sebastien Orsini);

Cobra, lino-cut by Christopher Wormell, from An Alphabet of Animals, 1990.]

Intriguing Architecture

         Sometimes architecture is one of the ways that the world tickles my imagination and draws me to curiosity and wonder.  Today I’ve got a few relief block prints that depict magical architecture in various forms.  First is a wood engraving by Kouki Tsuritani that depicts a strange spiral building.  There’s nothing about this that would require magic, but it certainly is not an ordinary building.  Not only is the spiral shape mysterious, but the perspective lends ambiguity to the height, as well as to the form.  Is it an enclosed building with tall windows, or is it more of an arcade or colonnade?  Like many wood engravings, this is quite small and the lines are very fine, so that it looks very precise and detailed, but when you try to look at the little person in the doorway, you discover that it’s really very simple.  Still, with that conical hat in that mysterious building, it must be a wizard!

        Next are two linoleum block prints by Brian Reedy.  These are both much more explicitly fantastical, and both are cities in the sky.  Even so, they are quite different.  The castle on the cloud has a pleasing array of turrets and towers in the European style, and is a very satisfying  example of a classic idea.  Who wouldn’t want to explore this magical castle?  The castle on the moon, on the other hand, is Moroccan in style, and includes some interesting twists.  For one thing, the fact that the crescent is the solid shape of the moon, and not simply an illusion of shadow, leaving no doubt that this is created by magic.  Then the different scales of the moon, the buildings, and the lamps leave me wondering how a human would fit into the scheme.  There are also a few palm trees, which are sure to make living there much more pleasant.  I particularly like the windows poking out of the other side of the crescent, implying that the whole moon has rooms or at least passages inside.

        I’m also throwing in a wood engraving by Hilary Paynter, which is not really fantasy, although I can't believe that it's a real place, either.  Either way, it definitely tickles my sense of adventure and desire to explore.  This one is quite large and extremely detailed.  It’s possible that it’s a real place, but if so it certainly includes more than its fair share of cool stuff!  There’s that enormous ammonite fossil above the beach, and the stone staircase leading up over the boulders.  As you follow the path up, there’s the tunnel door, and the ancient arches, and the array of enticing architecture, including the building on the right that’s cantilevered out over the edge of the cliff.  I’d love to explore this island, but I’m glad I don’t have to make this hike every day if I lived there!

        Which of these magical places would you most like to explore?

[Pictures: Spiral, wood engraving by Kouki Tsuritani, c. 2022 (Image from Society of Wood Engravers);

Castle on a Cloud, linocut by Brian Reedy (Image from Brian Reedy’s web site);

Moroccan Moon, linocut by Reedy, (Image from Brian Reedy’s web site); 

Seal Island, wood engraving by Hilary Paynter, c. 2022 (Image from Society of Wood Engravers).]

Big Botanicals by Kubish

         I haven’t had a chance to do this in a while, but one of my favorite winter activities is visiting a greenhouse, where it’s warm, humid, green and growing inside, while outside the glass everything is monochrome ice and snow.  Aga Kubish is an artist based in the UK whose huge block prints capture a little of that spirit.  She makes huge linoleum block prints which take days to sketch and weeks to carve.  Her style is the traditional use of fine lines, cross-hatching, etc., but the size of the pieces gives them a different impact.

        This first one is the view that made me want to feature Kubish’s work on an icy February day: the Palm House I wish I had attached to my studio right now!  At 70x100 cm (27.5x39.5 inches) this piece would definitely make you feel like you were there.  And I always love a spiral staircase, too.

        This carpet of ferns is a little smaller (76x56 cm), but it’s still a fair bit larger than any piece I’ve ever done, and the fern fronds are about life sized.  I love how the many layers of shaded ferns give the piece depth.  I’m also interested by the composition with no obvious focal point, which is something I’m not bold enough to do in my own work.  I’ve always had a thing for ferns, so I find this really beautiful.

        Although most of Kubish’s work is botanical, I also thought I’d share this portrait of an incredibly curly, twirly, tangled jellyfish.  I imagine it was a lot of fun (and a lot of work) to sketch out all those interlaced threads.

        Sometimes I think about making larger pieces, but so far I’ve been daunted not only by the work, but even more by the thought of having to carry huge pieces around with me to shows.  I’ve already stopped bringing my posters to shows simply because they’re a pain in the neck to transport and display.  Still, it’s fun to consider what I might do if I had 2x3 feet to work in!

        If you want to know more about Kubish’s process, click on the links and go to her web site, where she’s got lots of photos and videos of the making of some of these pieces.  Meanwhile, those of us in the northern latitudes can look at these pieces and dream of growing things.

[Pictures: Palm House, linocut by Aga Kubish, 2022 (Image from seanestart);

Ferns, linocut by Kubish, 2021 (Image from seanestart);

Jellyfish, linocut by Kubish, 2024 (Image from seanestart).]

Boskone Panel Signpost

         This weekend I’ll be off to Boskone, another sci fi/fantasy convention, at which I’ll be participating as an artist and an author in all the usual ways: art show, reading, and panels on art and writing.  So today is another signpost panel, to highlight links that may be of interest to attendees at any of the panels I’ll be on.

• Block Print Workshop

        Step-by-step - If you click here (or on the label in the sidebar), you’ll get to a whole bunch of posts that give instructions for specific projects or techniques, from mini tile blocks and Provincetown white line blocks to collagraphs and trace monotypes.

        Handout - If you need to see the handout of instructions and materials that I provide at workshops, it’s always posted here.

• Legends Reborn - Folklore is at the heart of so many fantasy stories, but each culture’s legends bring something new to the table. Why does folklore have such power over us? Why does it endure? And how do authors honor these stories while making them their own?

        The Mythical Creatures label in the sidebar links to over 200 posts about creatures from folklore all around the world and through history, but if you want to focus it slightly, you can start with Mythical A-Z, and How to Make a Fantastical Creature.

        Magical Botany - 26 posts featuring magical plants from folklore

        Mythical and Imaginary Places - 26 places of folklore from A to Z

        The Beast - A post showing how 10 different artists have portrayed Beauty’s Beast.

        Some Favorite Fairy Tales - A post about what I personally find so enchanting about some of the iconic fairy tales.

        Selkies - A post touching on why shape-shifter stories are so universally fascinating, and how I used elements of this folklore in one of my own books.

        Baba Yaga Village - A case study of my adapting folklore in a block print.

        Cold Iron - A case study of my struggle to figure out how to adapt some traditional folklore into the modern world.

• Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading (plus Autographing and Book Launch Party.)

        I’ll be reading from Bittersweetness & Light, which you can learn more about here, and in these posts: launch, some art, and some full stories and a poem.

• The Art of Creating Fantastical Creatures - Dragons, griffons, and mermaids. What does it take to create a lifelike being that only exists in the artist’s head? What does an artist have to keep in mind when drawing imaginary beasts? How do you choose the right color palette? And how do you put personality into creatures who have no analog in real life to draw from?

        Chimeras - A post related to the “Chimera Principle” of creating creatures from elements of other creatures.

        Symbiote City - A post related to the “Jabberwock Principle” of balancing alienness with familiarity.

        A Touch of Science and Dracopedia - Two posts listing some books that offer inspiration and lessons in drawing fictional creatures.

        Working from Photographs - A post with case studies in how I use reference photos.

        On the Virtues of Beasts - My own book of fantastical creatures, plus lots of images to be seen here and here, including some discussion of how I came up with my versions.

• Selling Art Without Selling Out - From executing commissions for clients to selling prints online or at conventions, there are a wide array of ways to sell one's art. There is no one perfect way that fits each artist, and it can be important to maintain your own personal vision. Our panel of creators will discuss the pros and cons of different approaches and answer your questions.

        The Price of Art - A post on how I think about my pricing.

        Limited Edition - A post on the history and practice of limited editions of original art.

        Art Show Checklist, Show Preparations, and Portrait of an Open Studio Weekend - Three posts on the nitty gritty of participating in weekend art fairs.

[Pictures: It Takes a Flock, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2021 (originals sold out, Image from NydamPrints.com);

Pet Peeves, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2023 (Image from NydamPrints.com).]