Mossy Crow
by Trix Robertson and Miranda La Mutanta
This softback artist's book arises from a portfolio of images created by Trix Robertson and Miranda La Mutanta. Taking their inspiration from the Cornish landscape, these pictures reveal its mysterious inhabitants: the creatures of the wild imagination.
These creatures seem to have strayed out of ancient myths, each with their own story to tell. Ink painted characters are brought to life with real collaged details taken from the natural world, a bone, a feather, a crow's claw here and some lichen there. Through a process of hunting and gathering, Trix and Miranda have got to know these creatures well.
They have woven them into stories, first as an interactive piece of family theatre, presented at Port Eliot for the last two years, and now as this book.
The visually rich book is designed to appeal to children as well as adults who have not forgotten how to play. Beginning by looking at the world of humans from the point of view of the creatures, who are forced to share the dwindling wild places with us, the story has a subtle moral about the importance of staying in touch with our wild imagination.
The open ended narrative then takes us on a journey into the Other world, the world populated by creatures of the moon, who find themselves in mortal peril when a magic scroll, holding all their names, is stolen from their Queen the Owl. Along side Mossy Crow, a scavenger child, with a sharp beak and a talent for finding lost things, the reader is invited to go on a quest to rediscover the lost names, and save the creatures from extinction.