A lifetime's pursuit of the magic of art has resulted a manifestation of the Old World magic of the fae kind. The Phenomenal Anomaly Amily Miori has found herself enchanted by the world of fairy tales, before they became bedtime stories for children. This enchantment has been transferred to canvas. Miori showed off the magic Saturday during a show at the 1894 Gallery.
"People think of these stories as kids' stuff, but they aren't, not in their original forms," Miori said. "Back when they first were told, adults told these tales to each other as entertainment. They were a bit darker, scarier then."
Miori's art display not only has some of the classics many know, she was inspired by some lesser known stories, such as that of Undine, a water-sprite who marries a knight on the condition he shall never see her on Saturdays, where she assumes her fairy form.
"This one has not changed from its original form, because no one has rewritten it yet," she said.
Miori, 42, has been drawn to art her entire life, her earliest efforts at being a professional artist going all the way back to her own childhood.
"I've known I wanted to do this since I was a kid," she said. "I would go to my neighbors and try to sell them my stick figure art.
Later, in kindergarten, I took the third place ribbon in a Halloween poster contest."
As she began to develop her knowledge and skills, she reached a point in the last 10 years where she created for the purpose of gallery shows, surrealism being her favorite style in which to create.
"My timing was good on that one, as the internet created a way to reach out to art fans and it also helped me learn various aspects of doing this, both artistically as well as the business side of things," she said.
Miori is not the only one in her family who has displayed talent. Her son, Seth, also has displayed talent, most notably in writing.
"He writes beautiful stories and creates amazing characters, which is part of how I discovered fairy tales," she said.
"Now, at 19 years old, he has discovered a mind for design and is now pursuing an engineering degree. But his exposing me to fantasy story made me realize that people knew these stories, but not their roots. So I began reading the original versions of these tales. I learned not only the original versions of these stories, but they served as a window to the past, learning things I didn't know before. And back then, the world and these stories sometimes took a darker turn than some might realize. These stories were passed down through the ages by adults telling these stories to each other."
All this resulted in Miori's current gallery show, a display of art inspired by these dark tales of magic and mystery.
Her next art show will be opera-based, and she will be bringing that gallery to Texarkana in April of 2020.
For those interested in the Undine story, one can look it up on Youtube.