Lennon Studio at Faerieworlds 2009!

Wow, so first I have to say I am amazed at how long it has been since I blogged, and now there is so much to catch up on that some may just have to fall by the wayside for now, since last I posted was before Faerieworlds!!! So a lot has happened since then, and I think I will have to break the posts down by events or months or something, because trying to cram almost 4 months of fun and excitement and visits to Faeryland in one post is just absurd! So first order of business is Faerieworlds. It was phenomenal despite the crazy insane heat and change of venue. I personally really liked the new venue, and the addition of on-site camping definitely made the experience that much more magical, pretty amazing to get to hang with all my COMFy folk at the COMFy kitchen and enjoy amazing food and fun and laughter with that whole gang. Above is a picture of me with Mermaid (founder of COMF) and her daughter Zoe in the opening spiral dance ceremony. One thing I really appreciate about the Faerieworlds and Faeriecon events is the ritual aspect of honoring faerie and the seasons, cannot think of a more magical way to celebrate Lughnassadh! And there was no shortage of faerie magic afoot at the new venue, and even the water sprites were able to join in the act since the event was bordered on one side by a river where many hot and sticky fae went to cool off, or enjoy a private moment. My river excursions were pretty intense and amazing... Now this Faerieworlds not only did we have the opening ceremony spiral dance, but the wonderful medieval folk music band Faun also had their own version of a spiral dance put to their song Andros... and with Faun having one daytime set and one nighttime set that made for two additional spiral dances, bringing it up to a triple spiral dance count. Lots of magic was woven that weekend. The line up of bands was stellar, of course everyone loves Woodland, and as has become tradition the COMFy folk had a little prank to play on them, during their third song we all secretly put on red clown noses (note you can still see some on in the above photo by Ash Martell) and the band was in stitches... very fun to see them all try to play their song with straight faces while a whole crowd of red nosed faeries are looking back at them. Faun was definitely a highlight for me, their music inspires me to dance and the crazy medieval instruments they play are a sight to behold. Dehli to Dublin was a fun and energetic group of musicians that blend tradition folk music from India and Ireland, definitely had the crowd flowing. Beats Antique put on a fabulous show with the legendary belly dancer Zoe Jakes wowing the crowd with her undulations and rhythm and fans, absolutely stunning and breathtaking. A personal favorite song from there set was an unreleased track at the time, a Mashup of Michael Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr. you can click on the link to download the track from them on bandcamp. One of the biggest highlights of the festival for me was that I got to perform both nights with Mythmaker a fire-dancing, stilt-walking, sacred theater troupe from Canada. This shot was taken at the Saturday night performance, photo credit goes to my friend Laume :-) Another highlight for me was getting photographed by amazing Celtic artist Jen Delyth as pictured below I was also forutnate to be photographed by Time Of the Fairies photographer Joseph Corsentino along with Time of the Fairies model Elizabeth Maxwell I guess my only complaints about Faerieworlds was it felt like it was over too soon, a moment of magic far too fleeting, and far off from repeating... till next year at Lughnassadh when we can all gather under the stars again.

Next stop... Faerieworlds!!!!

So it has been quite some time since I have blogged anything, so quite a lot has gone on since last I posted, which was just in January. Had the opportunity to attend and perform fire dancing at a wonderful Beltaine ritual put on by the Pagans of Norfolk County, here is one of the videos of my performance with Brian Duguay aka Singing Willow on vocals and guitar, and Tony Guerriero from Prance the Witches Path on drums.. So I have been fairly busy this spring, was off selling my artwork at the Spoutwood Fairie Festival and Maryland Faerie Festival and most recently with my little fae child we vended at the Winslowshire Renaissance fest with proceeds benefiting the Winslow Farm Animal Sanctuary in Norton, MA. And somewhere in there I found time to go to Wildfire as well! So what is new on the horizon for Lennon Studio?? Flying off to Eugene, Oregon for the epic festival Faerieworlds!

This New Year

So far this I am not quite sure what to make of this New Year... Last year on this blog I was trying unsuccessfully to write often and tell of my adventures, and then I found that with so much adventuring it was hard to find time to write.. so I am not sure what type of shape this year will take in my life, and how that will outwardly manifest in different realms including the cyber one.. but we shall see. So what has been going on of note? Well of course of note to the whole world this past week was the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. The influx of energy surrounding this is palpable, and it is amazing to be able to witness history in the making. America seems once again a country filled with hope and possibility, even in these very troubling and difficult financial times. Also of note to literary people this past week was the bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday (January 19th, 1809). There was a movement here in Boston to reclaim Poe as it's native son, and Mayor Menino even named a place to be Edgar Allan Poe square. I had the good fortune to attend some of the Poe festivities at BC with my mum, who is a BC alum. Through circumstance of chance at the first evening of lectures I had the pleasure of sitting next to the actor and film maker Brent Fidler, who was brought to Boston from Vancouver to premier his film Poe The Last Days of the Raven It was a wonderful film, and dvds are available on his website. I am extremely pleased to announce that I am having an article published in Faerie Magazine, so that is very exciting! I have Kim, Be and Yama at Faerie Magazine to thank, it has been really cool to see my name in print! To have my article in this issue in particular was especially cool as my good friend and fabulous artist Matt Hawk is the artist who is featured in the Five Questions article. Since I had an article in I was able to sneak peak before the issue went to print and it looks fabulous. Kudos to Matt! He is a phenomenal artist and you can check out his work on his website Great Scot Productions With the coming of the New Year comes the sorting through of the previous year, shifting and re prioritizing what is important and vital in my life. One thing I have done so far in the New Year which I am determined to continue is getting back into yoga practice, it has been a great way to center myself and lovely to be in those super heated rooms when it is so frigid out. I find that life is a balancing act, and certainly as a single mom, artist and dancer, with a full time job and lots of goals and ambitions, sometimes I can get a little off the beam as far as balance is concerned, trying to do too many things at once. One thing I find difficult is trying to manage all of this online realm, very hard to keep up with it all, and so easily I am sucked down the super highway and it has a kind of faerie like quality in feeling like no time is passing and yet I emerge from the cyber realms to find hours gone by.. so on that note I am going to extract myself from this cyber-reality and go paint!