The Dark Bride

Ink & watercolor on bristol vellum (140 lb.) 8.5" x 11" (approx. 21.6 cm x 27.9 cm). This was painted for the Femme Thou Art Collective's themed auction for October. The auction was supposed to begin today, but with the Facebook experiencing widespread issues this morning, I don't think we'll be able to start on time. At any rate, the event is week long, so it's not a big deal if we don't start on time. The theme for this auction is "Grimm's Fairy Tale".

Many member artists are doing "Red Riding Hood", "Rapunzel", "Snow White"... the tales that are well known. I found my inspiration in an obscure tale titled "the White Bride and the Black One" (Sounds almost racist at first glance ... but the tale is not about brides of different ethnic ancestry.). The story is about a young woman with a step mother and step sister (Here we go again...). The protagonist (good young woman) is nice to a lost stranger asking for directions (God in disguise), while the step mom and step sis were rude and mean to the guy and angers God and were turned "as black as night, as ugly as sin". (Rather severe punishment for their offenses, don't you think?) Short story shorter, the good woman was set to marry the king, but the evil step mom uses black magic to fool the king into marrying the step sis (the Black Bride). In the end though, it's all happy ending with some revenge harm done to the step mom and sis. Old-fashioned justice. You can read the story here. --> www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_…

I like being a part of a collective (actually, I'm a member of two) for exploring themes I may otherwise not venture into. I also like experimenting with different themes, approaches, and styles. I did a lot of paint flinging in the early stage of the watercolor of this piece. So for the reason of keeping me playful and flexible, groups like this can be good.

©Mitzi Sato-Wiuff 2013

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