project 52:21

lino block print and acrylic wash on paper

And here's yet another postcard inspired by Evangeline Walton's The Mabinogion Tetralogy. I'd just finished the last of the four branches the day before I started on this card which - if you know the legend - is about Blodeuwedd. The heir of the ruling family of Mathonwy, Llew, is cursed by his mother to never know a woman - you know, "knowing" in the Biblical sense. So his uncle Gwydion and his uncle's uncle Math (rulership passes through the sister's son at this point, as assurance of shared bloodlines) use magic to create a beautiful woman out of flowers. She is Blodeuwedd, the "flower-faced." Unfortunately, after some years of happiness, her head is turned by another man and she helps him to murder Llew; her lover uses magic to assume the face of Llew, whom he replaces. Eventually, Gwydion and Math figure out what has happened and, after restoring Llew to life, Gwydion hunts down Blodeuwedd. She attempts to flee to a fortress in the mountains, but Gwydion catches her in the night. Her punishment? She is turned into an owl, so that she may forever flee into the night.

I suppose this is kind of a dark card to make and send at Valentine's, but I didn't really put two and two together until I was actually mailing it - ON Valentine's Day. Yes, I was quite late with this one - not only because the lino block took me a couple of days to design and carve, but because I printed this with an oil-based ink, which then needed a few days to dry. Ah well, I quite like this one - and I have a stack of leftover postcards (just printed, sans paint) if anyone is interested and would like them? I printed about five or six of these, so that I'd have a few to choose from; given time, I'll probably use up the leftovers, but if you would like them, and would use them, let me know! 

The postcards were claimed, thank you! However, I have made prints of the original postcard (with acrylic wash) available on my Society6 page: please click here to view and order.