[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-raven-girl-audrey-niffenegger":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Yesterday I met up for lunch with writer, illustrator, printmaker and painter \u003Ca href=\"http://audreyniffenegger.com/\">Audrey Niffenegger\u003C/a> and got to meet her younger sister, Jonelle, who was visiting from Chicago. Audrey's working on a ballet to run at the Royal Opera House next spring called \u003Ca href=\"http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/raven-girl-by-wayne-mcgregor\">\u003Ci>Raven Girl\u003C/i>\u003C/a>, so on the way home, I doodled the three of us surrounded by feathered friends. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/birdlunch-c5b7f41f24.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nThe ballet sounds fascinating, and Audrey's been collecting stuffed ravens to draw from, creating the overall look of the ballet, as well as writing it. I just spotted \u003Ca href=\"http://www.urchicago.com/interviews/2012/3/15/audrey-niffenegger.html\">an online interview\u003C/a> in which she talks about it: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Ci>It's called The Raven Girl — about a young girl whose parents are a raven and a postman. They have a really good relationship. It's a good family and all, except that their daughter looks like a girl but can't speak. She can only make sounds like a raven and inwardly feels that she really is a raven. So, she goes to a plastic surgeon to get turned into more of a raven-looking person, and it doesn't really work out that great. It's sort of meant to be a fairy tale of gender re-assignment. It just seems so applicable to me, because in fairy tales things are always changing. Not necessarily because they need to, but just because you say so, and I thought to myself, \"Well, these days, we can really do that.\" I wanted to kind of bring the fairy tale full circle to the modern capabilities of transforming people.\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/raven-girl-by-wayne-mcgregor\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/roh_ravengirl-1eeb2785df.jpg\">\u003C/a>\\r\n\\r\nAudrey's been doing loads of etchings on raven themes, and listening to her always makes me want to go back to art college and do another degree in printmaking. Not a Master's degree (the college people expected me to know how all the equipment worked by then) but a Bachelor's, when I'd get training and loads of time to do projects and experiment with etching, lithography and screen printing. This isn't a print, but here's today's tribute morning sketch, based loosely on some of the stuff Audrey's been getting up to. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/raven_head2-775b853318.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI first met Audrey at the \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/334009.html\">Cheltenham Festival of Literature\u003C/a>, and then got together with her through a mutual friend, writer \u003Ca href=\"http://hayleycampbell.com/about/\">Hayley Campbell\u003C/a> (who's working super-hard right now on a book about Neil Gaiman). Last time we met up, we at at \u003Ca href=\"http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/\">Ottolenghi\u003C/a> and it was so good, I really wanted to go back again. Jonelle's good fun, I can see why Audrey likes travelling with her. (That's Jonelle in the centre.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ottolenghi_1-41a7afdc57.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for a couple more foodie pics under the cut...-->\\r\nMmm, check out these treats in the window! We were very good and all had salads, and only split one piece of cake. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ottolenghi_2-10c3ca6a2b.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n...But these aren't just any salads at Ottolenghi, they are the kind of salads you would cross town for. So so so yummy. They publish a whole bunch of cookbooks, I really ought to get one.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ottolenghi_3-74b7a878f6.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nOne more thing, I saw this video on \u003Ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Hahn\">Daniel Hahn\u003C/a>'s Facebook page. A happy library story, for a change: \\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"2024\"/>","2012-09-13T07:36:00.000Z","raven-girl-audrey-niffenegger",[],"raven girl audrey niffenegger",1776628724192]