PORT TOWNSEND — Once upon a time, in the far-off country of Massachusetts, there lived a librarian named Theresa. Theresa lived on a farm with her handsome son, Daniel, and her beautiful chestnut horse, Tess.
One day, a woman appeared at the farmhouse and transformed Daniel into a Russian folk hero, Alexi, and Tess into the Golden Mare who helps him find his fortune — all with the stroke of a paintbrush.
The woman was author/illustrator Ruth Sanderson, who used Daniel and Tess as models for the characters in her book, The Golden Mare, the Firebird and the Golden Ring. Sanderson will be town next week to visit Tess and owner Theresa Percy, and while she is here, will give a program on how to transform everyday people — and animals — into fairy tale characters.
With a little literary license.
“She told me, ‘I lightened her up a bit and made her beefier,'” Percy said of Tess.
Percy, Port Townsend Library director, met Sanderson when she lived in Holland, Mass., where she had a 24-acre farm and horses. Both were horse women who liked to ride; the two used to go trail riding together. So when Sanderson needed a model for the Golden Mare, she asked Percy if Tess would like the job.
“Her golden mane was the inspiration,” Percy said.
Sanderson also recruited Percy’s son, Daniel, for Alexi, the hero of the story. Daniel had just graduated from high school. Sanderson spent the next several months photographing him riding the mare through the woods or posed like the characters in the scenes. In one illustration, Alexi, having been sent to escort a beautiful maiden to the tsar’s palace, is sitting in a tent enjoying a picnic.
“We actually set the tent up in the library conference room,” Percy said, referring to the library she worked in at the time.
That was in 1999. Published by Little, Brown and Company in 2001, the book, which is dedicated to “Theresa and her golden mare, Tess,” won the 2003 Texas Bluebonnet Award for best chapter or picture book as judged by Texas school children. In 2004, illustrations from the book were part of an exhibit of works by women illustrators at the Norman Rocket Museum.
Sanderson also won a 1980 National Science Teachers Award for Five Nests, and awards in 1992 and 1994 for The Enchanted Wood. Her portfolio includes cover art for a Nancy Drew mystery, The Flying Saucer Mystery, in which Nancy is, inexplicitly, sitting on a horse.
Recent projects include illustrations for a new Black Beauty story, which comes out this year, and a new Random House series, Horse Diaries, which Sanderson describes as “Black Beauty meets American Girl.” Each book is told from the point of view of the horse, the first being an Icelandic pony named Elska who lives in 1000 A.D. The second narrator is a brown Morgan named Bell’s Star who saves a runaway slave girl in 1850s Vermont. Both are being released this spring, with another coming out in the fall.
“I am in horse heaven,” Sanderson writes on her Web site, www.ruthsanderson.com.
The perks of having a friend who is a book illustrator: Sanderson has invited Percy to meet her at the Nez Perce reservation, where Sanderson is taking photographs for her next Horse Diaries assignment, a book about an appaloosa. The drawback to having a friend who is a book illustrator ¬– Sanderson used Percy in her version of Cinderella.
“I’m the evil stepmother in that,” Percy said.
But how women are depicted in fairy tales and fantasy is a serious subject for Sanderson, who does speaking engagements on the subject. The home page of her Web site features her favorite painting, “The Golden Wood,” from her book, The Twelve Dancing Princesses.
Sanderson also named her studio after the painting, of young women walking through the trees, which she feels embodies the magical richness of the fairy tale while depicting the journey and rite of passage into adulthood.
“She has a magical quality about her,” Percy said of the artist.
Tess, now 20 years old, is also a magical horse, Percy said, although doesn’t talk as in the book.
“She has two white spots on her belly,” Percy said. “I tell kids they are magic — to touch them and make a wish.”
Ruth Sanderson will give a presentation on creating artwork for book illustrations on Tuesday, April 28, at the Port Townsend Library, 1220 Lawrence St. The program, which starts at 7 p.m., is free. For more information, go to www.cityofpt.us/library or phone 360-385-3181.
Jennifer Jackson writes about Port Townsend and Jefferson County. To contact her, phone 360-379-5688 or e-mail jjackson@olypen.com.
