Greenwich: maritime monuments

Summer is ending before wonder | wander | women are ready, so we're looking back on sunny memories instead. We visited a friend at Greenwich and had a lovely stroll around the riverfront.

dreamer of dreams

When we explore the great names of the Golden Age of Illustration in Europe - especially in England - a prominent stand out is Edmund Dulac. He was one of the great illustrators of the early twentieth century. 

Edmund Dulac painted many wonderful pieces for a variety of stories - The Little Mermaid, Arabian Nights, Beauty and the Beast, Dreamer of Dreams, Daughters of the Stars, Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Garden of Paradise, Gods and Mortals in Love, Kingdom of the Pearl, Le Papillon Rouge, The Raven and Other Poems, The Rubaiyat, Stealers of Light, The Snow Queen, Tanglewood Tales, The Tempest. 

a prized English edition,1925 

wonder | wander | women were raised on his gorgeously intricate Orientalist illustrations. Fables and fairy tales that ignited our young lives and active imagination - immediately and for all time. 

sketchbook practice

Art is a muscle and you have to exercise it. wonder | wander | women have gone through a lot of sketchbooks over the years. 

from our Techo Kaigi post

Drawing is also an exercise - you don't have to do it every day, but keep it up at least three times a week or it will get harder to do. A week will go by, then two or three, then a month or two, and before you know it you've forgotten how to start again.

when women retell the classics

wonder | wander | women enjoy compiling and sharing our summer reading and holiday book lists as we read, read, read all throughout the year. 

Greek tales are having a recent renaissance with feminist retellings that are not just reclaiming women in mythology but are also turning patriarchal folklore on its head. 

There’s something about our oldest stories that never gets old. Rereading classical mythology can be an exercise in surprise and recognition mixed together. 

The Iliad & The Odyssey by Homer - Emily Wilson’s translations

There are things missed in a myth from previous tellings that can be utterly vital to understanding its meaning. Myths hit us somewhere below the brain, at some irrational, dreamlike level that somehow feels truer than regular stories. 

Space Invader street art

Since wonder | wander | women first moved to London, we found and loved the cheeky street art of French guerrilla artist Invader. His tile artworks imitating 8-bit pixel art are dotted around this city, as well as several European cities we happened to visit.