Weekly Artist

Name: Lilly Era (Lillith Raven Era)
Aka: Lillithstar
My Website: www.Lillithstar.com

Hi! I am Lillith Raven Era, but you can call me Lilly, I am 10 years old and am working on following my dreams. My dream is to be a Singer, and/or an artist. I'd like to be both. :) I am currently learning how to play guitar to go with my singing, and my songs are sometimes a pop sort of music, and sometimes a soft sort of music, what I ever feel like that day. Songs pretty much come to me, and I just sing them as they come. My drawing is usually Fairies and mermaids, and I often draw people and landscapes as well. I just love to draw, and painting is really fun too, I just love creating, I'll create any chance I get! Besides that, I also love to write, I'd love to publish a few books as well some day, I very much like fantasy and its most of what I read and write and draw. I love photograhy as well, its just really fun, I take nature photography mostly, flowers and landscapes and trees. I like to do a lot of things, I also like to write poems, not just stories, but I don't write poems about anything specific, one could be about flowers while the other one is about elephants! Oh! and I take dance classes! (just for fun though, I don't think I want to be a dancer). Yup. That's me. :) Lilly.

Education: I'm in 5th Grade, but I do just about College level work.

Likes: Fairies, mermaids, dragons, fun, disney, my art, Games, creating, reading, music, lots and lots of stuff...

Dislikes: Being told I can't do something, not being able to do something, pain (of course)

Pen Name: Paula Ray

I prefer to keep my real name private as I’m a teacher and my student’s know how to Google. Not all of my work is suitable for children.

I’m a musician; clarinet and saxophone are my primary instruments, but I do play many others. I’ve taught band as well as elementary music and middle school chorus. I’ve steered clear of high school band, because the enormous amount of time one must invest in half time shows would leave me no time to write. As it is now, I teach music to darling children and I’m home by 4:00pm everyday and eager to get my writing fix.

I’ve dabbled in a wide variety of genres and styles of writing, but the works that feel most “me” tend to be abstract and drenched in imagery and wordplay. These particular pieces seldom contain dialogue, nor do they have a typical “plot”. In my opinion, they are poetic snapshots or short text films that show the world through a musical lens. Often the overall tone is dark and moody and with deep undercurrents of emotion throughout. What I’ve found is that these extensions of my spirit in the form of poetic writings usually flow from me in a stream, one sitting, rarely taking more than twenty minutes to compose. I may edit the work after the basic structure is there, but I try not to tamper too much, because the organic feel gets lost when I do. I can’t say if my work is good or bad, I’m not sure I understand how one can define bad art anyway. I will say that to my great surprise and delight, I’ve recently had poetry nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Web. Apparently, someone out there enjoys my work, which makes me very happy.

You can find examples of my work in Weirdyear and Daily Love as well as many other zines. For a full listing, you may want to check out my blog: http://musicalpencil.blogspot.com



Likes: Sci-fi, steampunk, time-travel, fantasy, horror, poetry, music, songwriting, sculpture, painting, dancing, drama, puppetry, stained-glass, and all other forms of art.

Dislikes: Balancing my check book, driving, talking on the phone, reading instruction manuals, tallying grades, doing housework

Status: Married for eleven years and spoiled rotten