Fanartivation Interview with Jenny Dolfen (Gold-Seven)

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Fanartivation Interview with Jenny Dolfen (Gold-Seven)
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	Jenny Dolfen (Gold-Seven)
Date(s):	October 2, 2011
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	RPGS, card games, Silmarillion
External Links:	online here, Archived version
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Fanartivation Interview with Jenny Dolfen (Gold-Seven) was posted to Fanartivation in 2011.

This interview contains examples of the artist's work and their comments about them.

Part of a Series

See: Fanartivation Interviews

Some Excerpts

I’m a teacher/illustrator from Germany who has always loved to read. Books have always inspired me for most of my art, and for my own writing as well. I’ve loved Fantasy from a very early age, too, and was drawing scenes from my favourite books when I was six. It’s always been books, as well. I’ve had a few notable film-crushes and ended up drawing from movies and TV shows, but those have never stayed with me that long.

As for fandom participation, I’m a little uncomfortable with the term. It suggests something organised, people coming together because of some common liking (and sometimes being pretty irrational about it). I was born in 1975, and as fandoms only started to blossom with the rise of the Internet, I obviously discovered them late in the day, as I was twenty-five when I bought my first computer. I’ve been fan of many things without ever participating in the fandom.

Fandoms I’ve actively participated in have been Honor Harrington, A Song of Ice and Fire, and Heroes.

Things I’ve been a (huge!) fan of but never in any fandoms are Harry Potter, Star Wars, and also Tolkien. I find that I don’t feel comfortable in fandoms where most people are twenty years younger than I am. My focus is a different one. Notably, a lot less on sex and slashing.

My favourite character to draw is, and has been for over eighteen years, Maedhros from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Silmarillion. From the very first, I’ve been intrigued by the contrasting character traits he represents – both nobility and ruthlessness, both suffering and cruelty, as well as courage and plain bad luck. He’s the archetype of the Greek hero, who is driven by an initially benign goal and, in the end, loses everything because of his own failures of character (and knows it). I’ve always been drawn to the great, tragic losers of History. Hannibal, Tiberius Gracchus, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Simon de Montfort, Jeanne d’Arc. The ones who had a dream and had it crushed in their faces. I’m a bit of a masochist when it comes to art and literature.

Fandoms as a whole, I’m afraid to say, have sometimes added a lot of hassle to my life. “Fingolfin is blonde! Draw more Drizzt! Draw Jarlaxle! Elves have pointier ears! Elves always should have long hair! Draw Jarlaxle! Where are Remus’s scars? Your style is Anime – that isn’t suited to illustrating Tolkien! Harry should be polyjuiced in that image! Maedhros and Fingon should have sex! Draw Jarlaxle!” Fellow *fans*, however, have added a lot to my life. In my early years, when I was around twenty, I was already a huge Silmarillion fan, but I was completely alone. Only one person I had ever met had read it. Today, I have found such an incredible lot of people sharing my enthusiasm for things, with whom I can finally share thoughts on the characters and their motivations for the plot, and that has been extremely inspiring.