Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Charity Fundraiser, Faux Gingerbread & Dark Fairy Tales


We all know the tale; and evil witch lures innocent children using candy, in order to eat them. According to Anke A. Culver, a retired professor of Loyola University, the witch is the one that got a bad rap. The witch’s name was Katharina Schraderin, a talented baker from Southern Germany in the 1600’s. A baker named Hans Metzler tried courting Katharina in order to steal her recipes. After being rejected he accused her of practicing witchcraft. Katharina is found innocent, but the greedy Hans and his sister Grete end up breaking into her house. They ruthlessly kill Katharina and burn her remains in one of her ovens. Talk about killing the competition!



I created this shadowbox house out of wood and a variety of media. It is being auctioned for Galeria de la Raza's annual fundraiser, on Saturday, November 21st. The lightbox is shaped like a gingerbread house, complete with a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room, a walk-in closet, a kitchen and a porch. Two little characters seem to live inside, will they live happy ever after? The title of the piece is "La Casita/My Little Foreclosure".



These days seems like people are loosing their little piece of the American dream, for a variety of reasons. What, or who is to blame? Immigrants? Banks? People that got loans they couldn’t pay? Could it be illness, a divorce, a death in the family, the loss of a job? Are the victims, once again, being blamed?



Please support Galeria de la Raza’s Pachanga! Visit the on-line catalog for more information and suggested starting bids. Bidding by proxy is allowed and encouraged.

Visit Cookie Cutter Research, to read more about the story behind the tale of Hansel and Gretel, as told by professor Culver. The website also has a great on-line database of cookie cutters, as well as everything related to cookies.

1 comment: