Lady Margaret is the comic I've been working on for the past year! I was awarded a microgrant by Amplify Arts to publish it, and I'm hoping to do that around fall 2022 but don't quote me on that. 

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This is an artist statement I wrote about it: 

Lady Margaret is a dense, dreamlike retelling off the folk song of the same name. Words are scant and illustrations do most of the storytelling by drawing on art historical symbolism and the song’s gothic themes of repression, seduction, death, and dreams.

 

The process of composing page layouts involved collaging the work of some of my favorite painters (Remedios Varo, Stanley Spencer, and Hieronymous Bosch, among others). In particular, I draw on Varo’s architecture and interiors to convey Margaret’s state of mind: objectified, isolated, and searching for a way out. I borrow Spencer’s resurrection themes and crowded compositions, as well as his and Bosch’s unconventional religious mysticism.

 

Originating in Scotland in the 1600s, the Ballad of Lady Margaret and Sweet William has many different versions, meanings, and interpretations. The shifting nature of folktales and the universality of their stories reminded me of the richly illustrated fairytale books I had as a child. Before I could read words, I would “read” the pictures, over and over, and tell myself a different story every time. I wanted to draw a story so loaded with visual symbolism that it, like the folksong, could mean different things for different people.

 

For me, this story is about leaving the church as a young adult. It’s also about two old flames, William and Margaret, igniting  explosively. I hope these pictures will encourage you to extrapolate wildly, until they become like a mirror reflecting back at you.