The Fair Maidens of Kinuko Craft
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I never realized how deeply a woman could hypnotize before I saw her. Completely inattentive and naive to any realization we are observing, she sits with her eyes downcast, thoughts fully inward, neck arched and as feather-white as a swan. She is lost in her own world, unaware of how she is glowing radiantly in her pearl-strewn gown, golden hair cascading around her face as if she is underwater, or as though the very wind yearns to touch some part of her. Magic spins an intricate tapestry around her: flowers, animals tucked among ferns, golden treasures from a dragon's horde. But still she sits (or stands) alone, lost in the reverie provided by her own imagination and inner world.
I don't recall how old I was when I saw my first artwork by Kinuko Yamabe (or K.Y.) Craft, but I can say with certainty that her work changed my life. I've acknowledged many a time through the years what influence the art of the Pre-Raphaelites have had on my vision of what feminine beauty meant to me, but I would be remiss to ignore how obsessed I was (and remain) with the Kinuko Craft woman. I do know that the first book I read with a Kinuko Craft cover was from somewhere in my teenage years, and it was a Patricia McKillip book. No one weaves a word tapestry in quite the same way as McKillip, and no artist would do justice to that intricacy as perfectly as Kinuko's could. I felt thankful to have discovered her art, because from that moment on, when I read jaw-droppingly beautiful descriptions in a book of faerie garb - fabric spun to gossamer by spiders, freshwater pearls and precious jewels twinkling in the folds of the skirts and across the bodice, fresh flowers woven through intricate braids in the hair - I no longer had to wish I could see what such things would look like. I knew with absolute certainty that a magician with paint and canvas had already captured such things for me to see.
And then there was the rest of a Kinuko Craft painting. Oh, the rest of it! Bear in mind, I grew up in the 1990s, before the age of digital images. I distinctly remember checking out books with Kinuko Craft covers from the library, and even if I didn't end up being interested or engaged by the story inside (never the case with McKillip books, I should add) I would still keep the book at home, taking off my glasses to peer at every detail of the front cover, back cover, and spine, cursing the barcodes and labels for covering up any part of the hyper-detailed artwork. Oh, to have lived in an era of pinch and zoom screens! I highly encourage, no, insist, that you click on at least a few of the images in this blog post and use the tool of your fingers that I had no choice to utilize as a teenager to see every single gorgeously rendered detail. Do it for your own joy, but do it also for teenage me.
As I said, I came across Kinuko's work when I was a formative age, and as soon as I saw those radiantly glowing golden women on the covers, intricately rendered down to the very stamens of the flowers in her hair, I had zero interest in using fashion magazines for my dreams and goals of physical appearance and aesthetics. I had my new ideal. Of course, this wasn't entirely healthy thinking on the part of my teen self. My body has never and will never appear exactly as the women in Kinuko's art. My arms aren't as gracefully thin, my breasts even at that age were far, far larger, my body shape much curvier. To the extent that I focused on the physical appearance of the Kinuko woman, I would always fall short in comparison.
But the women in her art do not only bespell us because of their beauty. The truest and most important draw of a woman in a Kinuko artwork is her inner world. The way it seems as though she is so focused, so inattentive to us, because she is in the process of actually creating all those glorious magics and intricate details around her through the workings of her imagination. A Kinuko Craft woman is also a sorceress who is capable of creating endless wonders, all while maintaining a simplicity, guilelessness, and kindness as seen through the peace on her face.
I first met Kinuko Craft in person in 2007, when she attended Faeriecon. And though she also little resembles the women she paints, she is stunningly lovely, and radiates joy and kindness throughout her physical self. She is petite, with beautiful wavy silver hair. And she has the most contagious smile. The first year she attended Faeriecon, she was selling a small coffee table book of her art. Inside the cover of each sold book, she would add her signature, but also a beautiful simplified sketch covering the whole title page, done in gold marker. I can't be certain, but I think either she had a handful of sketches she rotated through, or each person got one a little different. I haven't yet seen any duplicates. She was so very kind and gracious, and treated each person who wanted to meet her with enthusiasm and grace. I was utterly charmed.
Exactly ten years later, Kinuko was at Faeriecon again. Her booth was next to ours for what was then Faerie Magazine (now Enchanted Living), and we were now acquaintances on Facebook. I had done an email interview with her for an article in our print magazine. She had "liked" pictures of my cats online. I was still starstruck as ever, but she recognized me, greeted me warmly, and gave me the most beautiful words of encouragement I will absolutely never forget. The details will stay between us, but she encouraged me to see my own worth and value.
I've loved Kinuko Craft's work for almost thirty years now, but my initial motivation for writing this post was a book I received in the mail last November. Borsini-Burr, the gallery who sells her original art, offered a retrospective art book for sale. And this, my friends, is a true retrospective, and an incredible art book. No hundred page flip-through is this...it is a thick, gilt-edged, 294 page book befitting an artist of her quality. The price, admittedly, matches that quality, but each image could simply not have been reproduced more beautifully, with each color absolutely beaming from each page. I am a notorious penny pincher. Most of my clothes are from Goodwill, and I wear my shoes until I poke holes through the soles. So when I say with full confidence that this book is worth the price, it's a weighty thing.
The book was the reason for the blog, but as I started going through her work and really contemplating what it means to me, I had a bit of a personal epiphany.
Last summer, I drove three and a half hours to meet photographer, model, and influencer Courtney Fox (@thefoxandtheivy) at Cook Forest in Pennsylvania. It was like walking into Rivendell. I don't know if the forest always looks that magical, or if we chose the ideal time of year, but the moss was glowing green, mushrooms were scattered everywhere, and the stream glittered golden in the light. It was a beautiful day, I loved meeting Courtney and her husband, and we had an incredible time. The resulting images are among my favorites I've ever created with a photographer. So much so, that I decided I wanted to get one of them printed as a giclee and frame it in a big frame on my wall.
I put it to a vote on my Facebook between three images, and the results were overwhelmingly in favor of my favourite photograph from the day. I ordered the print, found the frame, and my husband and I hung the photograph on the wall at the top of our staircase, right next to a window that faces the west, so the sun sets glowingly on the image. Every morning before I go down the stairs to work, I look at that artwork and feel a sense of confidence and self-value fill my heart. And it wasn't until I stumbled across the photo on my phone this morning while I was scrolling my saved photos on my phone that I realized: I look like a Kinuko Craft woman.
In my own way, with my non-waif arms, and my ample chest, my hair long but decidedly not being floated about by a wind god's caress, I absolutely feel like I radiate the energy of a Kinuko Craft woman. I look at that image and I don't see the things I dislike about myself. I see joy beaming on my face as I sit there in my own little world, creating the beauty around me. I see my toes, gracefully pointed, surrounded by draping folds of fabric across tree roots. I see mushrooms by my ankles, I see a glowing golden light in the verdant forest. I see a woman lost and found in her own magic.
I am a Kinuko Craft woman. Perhaps I always have been. Perhaps we all are in our own ways, we just need to find it and see it.
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