"My song sounds best in the green wood," said the bird. (H.C. Anderson)

"Very old are we men; our dreams are tales
Told in dim Eden, By Eve's nightingales." (Walter de La Mare)

Shauna: Nymph, fairy and little girl exploring wood and mystic landscape with childlike elation. Shauna: Cheering und dancing between huge dark trees, tiptoeing in a garden and discovering a mysterious castle, a megalithic tomb or sitting on the waterside, on the moos. Shauna: Crowned and dressed with light garment, melting with her environment, blurring to a translucent nymph, an ethereal creature. She is the Nightingale Queen. Like Eve in the Garden of Eden or Virgin Mary in her hortus conclusus, she is one with nature, with trees and rivulets, with animals and birds.

On her journey to Denmark, Shauna Angel Blue felt called to be with the land and the sea. She found relicts of ancient megalithic culture, which are all around in Scandinavia and felt attracted by enchanted castles and turrets nestled in idyllic gardens. Myths and fairy tales related to nature and its mystical power are omnipresent in this part of the world; Shauna rediscovered the tale stories of Hans Christian Andersen she had listened to as a child.

Inspired by these intense impressions, Shauna created 'The Nightingale Queen' series: Magical photographs showing herself as the heroine of her own fairy stories, entire narratives caught in a single picture. As her face is never clearly visible on the photographs, she appears as various translucent materialization of the spirit of nature, of life. The photographs are evoking memories of ancient time, of childhood, of a dream-world. 'The Nightingale Queen' pays homage to famous tales tellers as Hans Christian Andersen, to their fantastic imagination, to nature and its creatures. In fabulous images. Beauty, purity, innocence: The Garden of Eden is still present on earth. And no expulsion will ever happen.

SHAUNA ANGEL BLUE studied Fine Art & Photography at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR. She received her Bachelor of Liberal Arts in 1991 and her MFA Photography in 2000 from Columbia College in Chicago, IL. Several awards as the Figurative Photography Award from the Ultimate Eye Foundation (2005) followed. Her works are included in numerous collections in the US, China and Switzerland. Shauna Angel Blue lives and works in Chicago.

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