Meet Bunty May Marshall, our Folklore season artist!

Bunty! We are in love with your artwork for our new season, Myth & Ritual: Folklore on Film. Thank you so much for harnessing your artistic magic and designing something so beautiful that we’ll treasure forever. What inspired you to create in the style you’ve chosen?

First of all I’d like to thank you for having us on board and for trusting me with the honour of creating artworks for such a stellar selection of films. What a fantastic season you have lined up! The themes of this season's programme echo the motifs I explore in almost all of my work. I think that my artwork style naturally suits the subject matter as my work leans into a folk aesthetic, and it’s also the only way I know how to draw, I've never really deviated from this stark monochrome style. I have been drawing like this for over 20 years, and it’s only within the last six years that I’ve noticed the connection with old folk illustrations, etchings and illuminations. Without realising it, I’ve grown up absorbing this way of visual storytelling and when I started working on Hwæt! Zine it all just fell into place. I take lots of inspiration from medieval illuminations, religious imagery and old manuscript illustrations. Many of these creative practices were rendered using age-old crafts such as etching, wood or lino cuts. However, I hand draw everything using fineliner pens and despite being very time consuming, I find the process very cathartic. I dubbed my practice Arcane and Fable and you can peek at some more of my work on my Instagram.

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters you've chosen for the poster design?

There was a great temptation to choose one of the more illustrious titles for the poster (notably, The Wicker Man) but after a deeper look at the programme selection, I felt that it would be more interesting to pick one of the lesser known films to explore. I chose Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari which has such a rich visual language, and one that encapsulates the folk aesthetic in a very arresting way. The Russian folk costume displayed in the film is so beautiful and really allowed me to pull together an image that I felt defines the season. The central female character depicted on the poster is actually lying on her death bed, surrounded by sprigs of leaves - rowan for support, juniper to fight off dogs, and bird cherry to fight off snakes. Rites are spoken before she is then lowered into her grave. In Myth and Ritual, the expertly selected range of films not only explores darkness and death, but light and life. It's for this reason that I also chose to draw the masked and becostumed revellers who appear in one of the film's 23 vignettes. Mummers appear in folk customs around the world, going from door to door singing songs in exchange for food, money or drink, and in doing so, generally get up to some kind of mischief. The word “Mummer” is believed to stem from the Old French ‘momer’– to mask oneself or act in mime. The guys (or should I say guisers) drawn here embody the frivolity of seasonal ritual and custom – the light to balance out the dark.  I had a lot of fun drawing tarot-style illustrations depicting each film in our specially created Myth & Ritual programme zine as well as the main poster for the season.

Do you have any top tips for aspiring creatives?

This is a very good question, and one which is a tough one to answer. I think every creative approaches their practice in wildly different ways. I’ve struggled a lot over the years, as I was jumping from practice to practice, trying to find out what medium I work best in, which resulted in a few heady years making miniature models of pubs and buildings! I spent my entire childhood drawing and as soon as I came to university I panicked and convinced myself that just drawing was not enough. This led me down many creative garden paths and it took me until I was 35 to realise that drawing was enough. So out came the pens and paper again and with it my confidence in my art grew. I think having an ongoing self-led project is a great way to hone in your craft – do a LOT of whatever you love doing. It took me ages to lose the fear of a blank page, and now I look forward to a new challenge, but this only came with practice. Having a continuous project (the zine) has allowed me to flex that muscle on a regular basis. Do not be afraid of artistic ‘failures’. You will always make work to begin with which can be improved upon, you just need to focus on making lots of it (whether that's film, writing, drawing, painting etc) and with each piece, you will naturally improve. Looking back and critiquing your own work is also imperative. I often sit and stare at my work for a weirdly long time after I’ve drawn it. It allows me to see mistakes, question composition and iron out things I feel could be improved upon. I then know where to take the work next (and what to edit on Photoshop!). After I completed the hand drawn poster for this project I sat it next to the TV in the living room and had it in my periphery for days until I realised which certain things needed tweaking. So, in conclusion, make lots of art, don’t be afraid of making bad art, stare at your art for a weirdly long amount of time once you’ve finished it!

We are huge fans of yours and George’s Hwæt! Zine, but for those who are yet to discover its brilliance, please can you tell us a bit about it and its origins?

I think I’d be remiss not to first address the name of our zine! Hwæt (rhymes with…erm…cat) is an Old English word and has historically been translated as ‘Lo!’,  ‘Hear me!’ Or ‘What ho!’. It is the first line in the epic ancient poem Beowulf and seems to act as a sort of call to attention. As this word was known to proceed ancient stories, we felt it fitting enough to use as the moniker for our project. The tagline for the zine is ‘Ancient Lore for Modern Folks’. We delve into myriad old stories and each issue explores a different strand of storytelling. We have covered folklore and folk horror, myths and legends, ancient stones and megaliths, witchcraft and cunning folk, forests and ancient woodlands and fairy tales thus far. We’ve only really touched the surface, as the telling of tales and sharing of stories is one of humanity's oldest artforms so there is still so much for us to delve into. When George and I met, we bonded over a love of these things and in creating the zine, found ourselves with a platform to explore them further – I draw and George writes. By creating the zine we have opened our world up and have found an incredible community of folk who share our passions, with every issue we collaborate with other artists and writers. It governs everything we do and we love every minute of working on it. As well as the zine we have hosted a folk festival, several immersive film screenings, guided folklore walks and even invented a folklore inspired funfair! Little did we know that when we were chatting about our favourite TV show, Detectorists, on Instagram as strangers all those years ago, that it would all come to this! All our back issues of the zine as well as a range of merch and lots of prints can be found on our website.

We love that you and George are so deeply folk-obsessed. What first sparked this interest for you?

I think George and I arrived at where we are now from similar places, but our journeys are quite different. George has been reading fantasy literature since he was a child, and I think that for him, this was his gateway drug. I did read as a child, but I was later to the party and still have a lot of catching up to do with regards to that. For me, it was a love of the landscape that allowed me to really find my way in this world. I grew up on the stories of the Pendle Witches and the looming Lancastrian hills near my home were always something I yearned to explore. The more time I spent exploring the landscape and finding solace and comfort in nature, the more I learned about the stories and customs that have roots in our beautiful countryside, towns and villages. On many solo trips around Yorkshire I discovered standing stones and ancient rock art, ruins and castles and from that point onwards I was hooked. These monuments that surround us are deeply enriched with stories and folklore. Back in 2020 I made my Yorkshire Adventure Map to document some of my favourite adventures. An unforgettable trip on which I stumbled across the ancient  stone alignments in Carnac in 2014 changed me forever and from that point onwards, my interest in folklore, stories and history blossomed. When George and I met and created the zine, he moved up from Sussex to Yorkshire and now our interests have become symbiotic. All our time now is spent reading, watching films, writing, drawing and adventuring together. It is really quite nice!

There are so many folklore myths, rituals and legends to discover – we love how we continue to have so much more to uncover and be surprised by. Is there a folklore discovery you’ve been particularly surprised or fascinated by?

I think, for me, there is not one that I can set apart from another. Folklore is all around us… it is behind us, beside us and in front of us. One thing that I think fascinated me was the realisation that folklore is not something that we only learn about retrospectively, we live it every day. It’s inherent to our human nature and it binds us together, it’s not just our past, it’s our present and our future. It is a living, breathing entity and it is for everyone.

There is one corner of the folklore literature world, though,  which I am desperate to know more about and that is the Mabinogion. Ever since I read Alan Garner’s Owl Service it’s been constantly on my radar. The Mabinogion is a 12th-14th century Welsh text which consists of regional folklore, myth and Arthurian legend – the stuff of my dreams. I have dipped my toe in enough to know I need to just jump in the deep end and get thoroughly soaked (but I probably won’t read it in Middle Welsh!) – I just need to carve out the time, which is a constant battle of mine, where does all the time go?! One myth from my childhood that I desperately wish was real is that of Bernard’s Watch. If you know, you know.

We’re excited that you and George have selected to show The Outcasts as part of our Folklore on Film season. Why were you keen to present this Irish folk tale?

We discovered the film two years ago thanks to a BFI re-release using negatives from the Irish Film Archive, and were blown away by its depiction of a rural Ireland infused with mysticism and magic. We were sure it was about to take its rightful place as one of the core texts of the folk horror world, especially given the connection to The Blood on Satan’s Claw via writer-director Robert Wynne-Simmons, who wrote the screenplay for that folk horror classic, but then the hype seemed to fizzle out a bit and it never quite got the acclaim we think it warrants even after the re-release. It’s a fascinating and beautiful film that for us does something that no other folk horror (or folk horror-adjacent) film does, which is to create a kind of folk magical realism. We’re really excited about the prospect of introducing more people to it, and on a selfish note it’s a brilliant opportunity to see one of our favourite films in one of our favourite cinemas! George has written a passionate article about the film which can be found on HPPH's journal soon.

Are there any other films in the season you’re excited about?

Quite frankly, we are excited about every single one. There were a couple in the programme which we hadn’t seen, but after catching up on those ones, we are so looking forward to seeing them all on the big screen – especially in such a beautiful heritage cinema. I think seeing Song of the Sea in such a setting will be very special, it’s one of the first films George introduced me to and one which makes us both cry every time, it's a great addition as it's truly kid-friendly too. The White Reindeer is such a visually striking and emotionally powerful film, so that's one we are excited about. I hope there is a good turnout for the lesser known films as they are all gems.  If I’m honest though, seeing The Wicker Man in Hyde Park Picture House with a bunch of our pals will be a truly wonderful experience to behold, it's one of our favourite films, so much so that we have dubbed our spare room The Wicker Man Suite and it's full of merchandise and art inspired by the film. I even have The Wicker Man tattooed on my arm!  But really, I’d be hard pressed to highlight one over another because the selection is genuinely perfect. We will be there for every screening. Bravo guys!

We’re really grateful that the lovely people at Colours May Vary introduced us to you, and we saw that you recently did an amazing-looking event with another of our favourite Leeds spots, Holdfast Books. Do you have any other favourite places in Leeds you’d recommend?

We are huge fans of Leeds’ independent scene and we are very lucky to have so many creative businesses on our doorstep. Colours May Vary and Holdfast have been huge supporters of ours from our inception and we love to pay this back in kind by buying our books from them. We also love Truman Books in Farsley who we worked with recently for a Midsummer literary event, bringing our Folklore Funfair to the masses. The Bookish Type is also one of Leeds’ bookshop gems and is just down the road from our home which is wonderful. Contrary to how it may sound, we do hang out at places that are not book shops… The Corn Exchange in general is home to some lovely indie businesses including our pals at Goods In General Store where you can pick up beautiful vintage homewares. They rotate stock regularly, so you never know what you may walk away with, be it a set of Dewy System wooden drawers or a box of vintage pencils. We also love eating at Bundobust, drinking in North Bar,  North Star and Laynes and watching gigs at The Brudenell. But I guess, who doesn't?! It goes without saying that we frequently visit Hyde Park Picture House as our love of film is never satiated, and we are so pleased that you platform such wonderful fims, both old and new. 

Have you got any other events or projects coming up for us to look forward to?

We are currently working on issue 7 of our zine which will delve into the vast world of Folk Tales. We have some wonderful pieces in there including an interview with Daniel Kokotajlo which we actually carried out upstairs at HPPH last year! The interview was following the release of his excellent film adaptation of Starve Acre, one of our favourite books. It is a hauntingly beautiful tale of landscape, trauma and loss. We also have a piece on another modern folk inspired film, Rabbit Trap. As well as chipping away at the new issue we are working on lots of other little projects. We recently started collaborating with an immersive theatre company called Key of Dreams who create events you need to experience to believe! A short while ago, we attended one of their 24hr folk horror murder-mystery-cum-escape-room experiences set in a 17th century Welsh manor house, and it was one of the best weekends of our lives. You can read about that here. Keep your eyes peeled for more on our collaboration with them. On a personal level, my illustration books are quite full this year and I have some exciting things coming up in the North East for Novum Arts Festival which involves an interactive treasure hunt to uncover a map of medieval Newcastle. I’m also very proud to be working on my first ever book cover and chapter illustration for a book on mythology and how old stories govern our world today! I have an exhibition up in Tyneside Cinema Cafe at the moment which will be coming down soon, so if you’re in the area, pop in for a film, a coffee and a peek at my original drawings. There’s a few cinema inspired pieces just to keep it on brand. The big project I'm working on behind the scenes is in its very early days. As a newly appointed director of a CIC forest cafe on Otley Chevin, I can honestly say that very exciting things are in the works. Aptly named ‘Folklore’ the cafe will serve as a community gathering space and a place where people of all ages and backgrounds can commune and be involved in arts, nature, song, crafts and learning. Watch this space!

You can buy Bunty's incredible prints and zines from the cinema throughout our Myth & Ritual: Folklore on Film season. You can follow Bunty on Instagram at @arcaneandfable and @hwaetzine.