Eureka! New Idea: Moon Lanterns

I'm over the moon on this one, Gang. I've had two top-drawer ideas for Halfland today. Both are sketched, and I couldn't resist posting one of them before bed.

I had been planning for there to be handmade paper lanterns hanging on the lower branches of the Answer Tree but I never knew before what they should look like. Rustic, yes, and beautiful, as one of the main characters, Yanu, the Moth Man, would be living in the tree on the branches above the lanterns (because we all know how moths feel about light at night, they stay close by.)

But it wasn't until today when I remembered a poem I wrote last year about how the moon looked like welcoming light on a neighbor's porch. I picked up and explored a small paper lantern that I had painted black for Halloween with new eyes. Dots began connecting in my mind and the next thing I knew, I had an element for Halfland that I dearly love.

The main lantern, lit each night by Rana and hung from her porch, will be meant to actually be the moon in all its phases. Every exterior scene in the evening will show the lantern in a different phases of the moon, as I see it each evening from my own window.

It's as if Rana's cottage, with its Answer Tree that knows everything in life, and shall I call it the Stream of Consciousness with its rocks that are aware that runs along side it, and now the moon displayed each night from its porch, becomes grander metaphor than I imagined yet still completely meaningful to me privately. As it should be.

Next Post:
I can show how the Time Flys operate the clock in the Time Frog's belly when he eats them! Another improbable connect-the-dots tale with a very happy ending...

Comments

  1. I love the idea, and I also love your picture above! One gets a gret feeling of the atmosphere you'd try to achieve!

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  2. Anonymous8:08 AM

    What a charming idea! Another little detail to your story.

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  3. Thanks so much, Jessica! Seamus! and Rich! I love hearing these things from you each! Have a great day and please stay tuned for more...

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  4. You got it, Cookie! Posting right now!

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  5. Beautiful! I don't know if you've seen 'The Phantom Tollbooth' (animated movie from 1070) alot of the wordplay... makes your set remind me of childhood :)

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  6. Very nice!! Love the way everything is coming together.

    Emmy, I've seen the Phantom Tollbooth - didn't realize it was made in medieval times!! 1070... was that the Battle of Hastings or something? LOL!

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  7. m)__+++ sounds like a fantasticiously idea dear fellowtry perfectionaire. Indeed not only sounds but also feels like.


    m_) GO FOR IT!!

    may moon shine

    goo ford ed

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  8. Emmy! YESssssssssss! Phantom Tollbooth was THE BOOK of my childhood!!!! Oh God! How I adored that book with the incredible illustrations by Jules Phiffer! Holy Cow! You know, I bet you are quite right connecting Halfland to that book! It ignited in me a fascination with wordplay and literal metaphor. Well done!

    Here 's the link! OMG! The Watch dog is on the cover!! Wait til you see the post I just made that looks exactly like that!

    Thanks, Mikeeee! I know right?! The dots are all marching together by themselves now! Incredible feeling. Thanks for being here.

    Thanks, Dan, you are having funment with words too! Do you know Brian Prosser?

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  9. Correction: the amazing illustrations were by Jules Feiffer (not Phiffer.)

    PS I just caught the beginning and ending of Chuck Jones' 1969 movie of the book that someone was kind enough to post on You Tube. It really pales compared to the Jules Feiffer illustrations. They were so much more sophisticated and conveyed so much more nuance and meaning in the characters.

    It never played to the child, rather to the adult dwelling within the child. That's exactly what I want for Halfland too. Thanks for bringing this up!

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  10. I've never heard of the book...but it sounds like a great idea for halfland to me. And tonight there's suppose to be a FULL MOON!

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  11. Thanks, Mike. I really loved reading Phantom Tollbooth as a kid, still have the copy I read. It has an animation in the corners of all the pages I drew even then! (I was short on paper).

    Full moon?, I better hurry and make that lantern!

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  12. Anonymous5:20 AM

    Love, love, love this idea!! I can't wait to see it. The Phantom Tollbooth is such a favorite around here too.

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  13. Yay! Thanks, Miss Peggy! xoxox

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