My fairy tale series continues with The Little Match Girl, the tragic tale by Hans Christian Anderson.

Anderson wrote his fairy tales in the 1830s, during the height of the industrial revolution. It was a time of great contrasts between rich and poor, owners and workers. The Little Match Girl reflects this era, with the poor little girl trying to sell matches to indifferent passers-by on a freezing new year’s eve. Unable to sell her matches, unable to return home from fear of her father’s anger, she huddles in an alley and lights matches to keep warm. Magically, images of a happy holiday appear in the matches’ circle of light, ending with the little girl being carried away in her grandmother’s arms.

In my version, the girl is looking at one of the holiday scenes that appear. She sees holiday revelers: the haves, the robber barons, the investment bankers, the top 1% who control 42% of this country’s financial wealth. They enjoy themselves heartily, oblivious to the plight of the poor.

And the girl? Why can’t she go home? Perhaps her parents, foolishly, believed they could afford a balloon mortgage, and have been forced into the street when their house was foreclosed. Perhaps her parents were laid off, and since health care is tied to employment in this country –still, even with some health care reforms– all their money goes to paying for medicine for a sick family member. She fears her father’s anger; perhaps she and her mother would be better off in a shelter for battered women, but state budget cuts have closed their doors.

Did I say this was a story about the industrial revolution? Unfortunately, it’s a tale for our time, as well.

The Little Match Girl
Linoleum block print with hand coloring
Edition of 22

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There is a lot of interesting contemporary work based on this story. Here are some links for you.

• An interesting interview with David Lang, composer of the Little Match Girl Passion, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for music. He talks about the story and its imlicaitons and his reaction to it. Well worth the visit.

• Pixar’s animated version. Have your tissues handy.

• A play by Jack Neary, The Little Match Girl, in its entirety on Google Books.

I participated in a mini-marathon of printing as I got ready for my current show at the Simpkins Swim Center, and fell behind in posting my new prints. So here’s another: Rumpelstiltskin.

You are probably familiar with the story: A poor miller goes to see the king on some random business, but, in the worst stage-parent manner, tells the courtiers that his beautiful young daughter can spin straw into gold. Of course he is whisked to the head of the line, for what ruler can resist such a story? The king has the daughter brought to court and installs her in a room packed full of straw, with the instruction that she must spin it all into gold before daybreak, or she will be put to death. The poor young girl is distraught, until a strange little man appears in the straw-filled room and promises to take on the task for a reward. This happens for three nights running, with the upshot being that the king wants to marry the girl –the phrase cash cow comes rather rudely to mind– and the prize demanded by the little man escalates to her first-born.

I’ve chosen to illustrate the poor girl locked into the chamber with bale upon bale of straw — a veritable cathedral of straw. (I did, in fact, refer to photos of the Romanesque abbey church of Saint-Philibert in Tournus, France, when I drew the columns and arches.) She is overwhelmed by the volume of straw, and in despair.

I suspect most of us can relate to the feeling of too much to do, being dwarfed by a gigantic to-do list, without the faintest idea of how to get it all done. At least we don’t have a death threat behind it!