In February 2012, I went to a festival in Mansfield, Ontario called Northern Lights Gathering and I did a show and gave a workshop on storytelling. There was also a folk-band from Sarnia called Pagan’s Folly that did their show on Saturday night, and when I saw they had a fiddle player, I approached the band. Sarah the fiddler enthusiastically agreed, we spoke quickly about the story, and then performed it. Sarah’s instincts were dead on and the story performance was unbelievably perfect (my greatest regret was that I didn’t record it).
Émilie Boisvert witnessed this performance and a couple of months later, created this work of art. I am gobsmacked at its beauty, but also to have inspired such a thing. My heartfelt thanks go to Sarah and Pagan’s Folly for their musical accompaniment and my deepest gratitude to Émilie for creating this painting. To listen to the story itself, visit Shortening the Road (although it’s not the version from that mystical night).
