Fargo-based artist McCal Joy sees herself as a detective searching for veritable versions of the stories we’ve grown up hearing.
I met with her in a studio space flooded with sunlight, as a large rectangular window framed Downtown’s busy thoroughfare below. We looked at the pedestrians shuffling about, unaware that they were being watched.
“I sometimes feel like kind of a creeper just looking at everyone,” McCal laughed, “but it’s fun to take in the sights from here.”
As she showed me her painting of Snow White, titled “White Skin, Red Lips, and Poison Apples,” she enlightened me to the actual tale behind the story that Disney managed to make universally palatable.
In her research, she discovered that Snow White’s biological mother was the witch in the tale and was bent on destroying her own daughter for possessing a beauty greater than her own.
To vanquish her beautiful offspring, the witch mother would place poisoned apples around the forest where her daughter was known to explore. As Snow White wandered beneath canopies of trees in clothes made of tattered rags, her mother would morph into a raven sinisterly monitoring her every move.
In the original story, Snow White did eventually take a bite of an apple, but it wasn’t the poison that nearly killed her. Instead, she momentarily passed out after choking on a chunk too big to swallow.
Then comes “Prince Charming".
He notices the fair maiden lying dead, or so he thinks, on the ground, and orders his seven worker boys (not dwarves) to drag her back to his home so that he can have his way with her.
As the boys are dragging her back to his manor, she is bounced over a rock, which dislodges the apple chunk from her throat, thus enabling her to breathe again.
She looks up to the “Prince” and thinks he was responsible for saving her and so they live happily ever after…THE END.
After discovering the origins of lore, McCal visually interprets their significance in her paintings.
"Originally, people displayed art to evoke conversations about the stories they told," she said.
What’s lost in mass-produced art sold at big box stores are their connection to a source of significance, she added.
"Pieces are often selected because it matches the color scheme of the dinnerware or bedspread, rather than communicating a story."
“The value in the story shared makes up for any price you pay for original art,” she said.
I encourage you to peruse her Origins of Lore gallery to see other artistic renderings of the stories that you thought you knew.
~ Dane Johnson, Wordsmith-in-Residence posted up at Raven's Nest in Fargo.
