Childrens Stories Illustrated

Over the past few weeks i've been working on a series of illustrations based on some of my favourite traditional childrens stories.

Little Red Riding Hood
"Oh Grandma, what big Teeth you have"



The Three little Pigs
"The Wolf blew the house down and ate the first little pig"



Goldilocks and the three Bears
"I know who's been sleeping in my bed" Said little bear, "and she's still here"



Hansel and Gretel
"Gretel pushed her in and ran away, the godless witch was burned to death"



Little Red Shoes
"The executioner struck off her feet with the little red shoes, but the shoes danced away with the little feet across the feilds"



Gerda and the Reindeer
"Gerda ran over to the Reindeer, threw her arms around its neck, and laying her cheek against its soft muzzle, said 'please help me to find my friend'

Death of an American dream

Here in northeast Ohio

Back in eighteen-o-three
James and Dan heaton
Found the Ore that was linin' Yellow Creek
They built a blast Furnace
Here along the shore
And they made the cannonballs
That helped the union win the war

Well my Daddy worked the furnaces
kept them hotter than hell
I came home from 'nam worked my way to scarfer
A job that'd suit the Devil as well
Taconite, coke and Limestone
Fed my children and made my pay
Them smokestacks reachin' like the arms of god
into a Beautiful sky of soot and clay

Well my daddy come on the Ohio works
When he come home from World War Two
Now that yards just scrap and rubble
He said 'them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do'
These mills they built the tanks and bombs
That won this countries wars
We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam
Now we're wondering what they were dyin' for

From the Monongahela Valley
To the Mesabi iron Range
To the coal mines of Appalachia
The stories always the same
Seven hundred tones of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the worlds changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name

When I die I don't want no part of heaven
I would not do heavens work well
I pray the devil comes and takes me
To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell.

-Bruce Springsteen

Youngstown

home of an unemployed steel worker

Bessie mine, Jefferson County, Alabama

Monongahela Valley


Images From Photographer Ross Mantles series "In the wake of an American dream" depicting the death of an American town, The Monongahela Valley, find more here

Old Youngstown and Bessie mine photographs from the wonderful Shorpy.com