This time last year Petra and I were talking about children’s books and in particular those we read as children. In my own practice as a mixed media artist, stories have always inspired my work; I am at heart a storyteller so I set myself a monthly challenge to chose a book from my childhood collection, re-read it and and create puppet, another passion of mine, inspired by the story. Almost immediately I failed in my monthly challenge but as the year unfolded I have become evermore drawn to creating these miniature worlds and have many more waiting in the wings.
Mary Poppins arrives one evening at 17 Cherry Tree Lane as a replacement nanny. A desperate Mrs Banks hires her on the spot, despite an absence of references, “I make it a rule never to give references,” Mary tells her, “a very old fashioned idea, to my mind, very old fashioned, quite out of date, one might say.” From that moment Mary Poppins takes over and life is never the same for Jane, Michael, and the twins, John and Barbara as they embark on a series of magical adventures.
Mary Poppins comes from the world of myth, and the books are full of references to mythological thinking.
When Mary’s birthday coincides with a full moon, the children visit the zoo, and the cages are full of people while the animals wander around looking at them. It is the one night of the year when all of the animals dance together and the wisest and most terrible lord of the animal world, a Hamadryad snake, first cousin once removed to Mary, tells the children about the unity of all life.
My favourite character is the ‘older than anything in the world’ Mrs Corry, who breaks off her barley sugar fingers and gives them to the twins, and her giantess daughters, Miss Annie and Miss Fanny. The children buy gingerbread decorated with gilt stars made from a recipe given to Mrs Corry personally by Alfred the Great. Later that night the children wake and from their bedroom window they see Annie and Fannie at the top of a long long ladder pasting the gilt stars into the night sky as Mary and Mrs Corry direct them from the earth.
I hadn’t intended to make these puppets as self portraits but they seem to be heading that way. So underneath Mary Poppins is a twenty something me in a buttoned up tweed coat holding a bag somewhere in London. I am fascinated by Mary Poppins and her creator P L Travers. I also have in my collection the Mary Poppins cook book which contains that gingerbread recipe.
Mary Poppins gave a superior sniff.
“Don’t you know,” she said pityingly, “that everybody’s got a Fairyland of their own?”
And with another sniff she went upstairs to take off her white gloves and put her umbrella away.
Mary Poppins, P. L. Travers, Puffin Books, 1967 (1934)
P.L. Travers was a consulting editor and contributor to Parabola since its inception in 1976. Her writings include the Mary Poppins series and What the Bee Knows (Arkana, 1993), and she has written extensively on myth and story.
Parabola is a non-profit, independent, reader-supported publication from The Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition.
Juliet Lockhart is the Artist in Residence for The Writers Company. You can read more about her here. You can also find her here: https://www.julietlockhart.co.uk and here: https://www.instagram.com/julietlockhartartist/?hl=en
