From the Sketchbook: Persephone....

   Ever since the first hearing of her story I've had a soft spot in my heart for poor Persephone (I even dressed as her for Halloween one year) and her mother Demeter...even though Persephone unwittingly screws everything up by eating those pomegranate seeds.  Okay, I just started with the ending, rewind:

   Demeter is the goddess of harvest and nature, she controls all growing things.  She has a beautiful free spirited daughter, Persephone.  One day Persephone is picking flowers in a field and Hades (who is technically her Uncle, eww) becomes infatuated with her and steals her to the underworld.  Well, Demeter is understandable distraught and goes to Zeus and pleads for him to intervene...and he agrees that Hades should return Persephone to Demeter on one condition, Persephone cannot eat any fruit from the garden.  Before Persephone hears of this she opens up a beautiful pomegranate and eats 6 seeds from it.  The compromise is for 6 months Persephone has to stay in the Underworld and the other 6 months she is with her mother Demeter. And that is why in the fall everything goes to sleep and leads to an unfruitful winter and then nature awakens again in Spring and Summer.  I did a quick little stylized illustration with prismacolor marker of Persephone about to unwittingly break this unknown rule.  I just told this whole story from memory and may have forgotten some details, if you're interested in more go here.

In other news:  To those paying attention I've been gone for 21 days....no I don't have some dramatically good excuse like I was in traction after a horrible car crash and I'm thankful for that.  Life just got in the way, I moved into a new apartment and there have been constant changes and activities this whole summer and I'm VERY easily distracted.  I'm not sure if I'll continue to do this blog daily even though it's called Every DAY is Fantastic, because I really need to devote some more energy to new projects and schemes.   This has been very fun though, and I may try to make it a bi-weekly occurrence instead.