This is a story about a story.

 I intend to write and illustrate a story.

This is a story that has been steadily brewing, rendering for years inside my heart and imagination. It's a work in progress. At present, the story appears thusly: a small green notebook lined with scribblings, several disjointed documents in my Google Drive, a glorious moodboard doing me a fat lot of good in my studio thousands of miles away, and yet more scraps of paper and torn out sketchbook pages of character designs. In an effort to turn this story in my head into actual words on paper, I decided to start a series of relief prints that would help me focus on major events, characters and settings. A lot of the difficulty in writing ~ for me ~ is having too many options and ideas and locking myself into even a small detail feels scary. Making visual choices somehow feels less daunting (probably because I make them regularly & without worrying much about "ruining" things). 

The Project: 
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Having always been inspired by the richly illustrated illuminated manuscripts of medieval Bibles and books of prayer, I'm embarking on a mission to create 10... maybe 12 linoleum block relief prints that combine beautiful imagery & text to spin a clear narrative, each one depicting major events in my original story. Along with every print I plan to release snippets of the story, each subsequent block will be another chapter in the tale.

I thought I'd keep a record of the process here, and let it be a home for the story of the story of Ghost Mountain and its strange inhabitants; about the girls who treat with ancient mountain gods, confer with creatures and conspire with spirits. And one determined to win back her father's soul, stolen and hidden inside a raven.


Looking forward to spinning this tale, letting things evolve & sharing it all with you.


♥ Em