Off The Page~ a multimedia exploration of painting, poetry, storytelling and music
Aschenputtel is the German name of the cruelly treated ash girl. The Aschenputtel tale compiled by the Brothers Grimm is of a young woman's coming of age story. This painting was influenced by Bruno Bettelheim’s seminal work The Uses of Enchantment, a psychoanalytic interpretation and also, Carl Jung's theory of self-actualization.
As a child of the 1950's and 60's, I grew up with the more commonly known Disney/ French Charles Perrault version of Cinderella and remember delighting in the high keyed colors and magical music of the production. .
In all versions Aschenputtel is helped by birds and here I envision her clinging onto the hazel tree Aschenputtel planted in her mother's grave. Her slipper is swooped up by the fierce eagle, a the eagle a national symbol and the slipper a sexual symbol.