Calendar Art : Femme Fatale Painting for Murder Mystery Theme Party

Mirror, Mirror on the wall ...



It is time to dress up for the Hidden Councils Annual Costume Ball. This is the social event of the year.
The Royalty of the Mage Guild, Were Clans, Vampyr Houses and Fae Court will be in attendance.
As always when the Immortal Court gathers, you can expect political intrigue, barbed innuendos,
backstabbing and betrayal. Not much different than any other day among royalty.

An Enchanting Murder Mystery Party Game

It is whispered that there will be a special meeting of the Hidden Council at this year's

annual Costume Ball to address the recent Watcher murders. Watchers are important to

the Immortals and help keep their existence hidden from humanity.

The Immortals, in turn, have sworn to protect the Watchers for their service.

Femme Fatale noun [French: femme, woman + fatale, deadly] from Answers.com

A French phrase with the literal translation " fatal woman". A femme fatale is the nameless character in Billy Wilder's The Seven Year Itch, portrayed by Marilyn Monroe in the film adaptation.

1. A woman of great seductive charm who leads men into compromising or dangerous situations.
2. An alluring, mysterious woman
: In ancient cultures, she was impersonated by Ishtar, the Sumerian goddess. Other examples are biblical characters like Lilith, Delilah and Salome. In ancient Greek Mythology, she took the form of Sirens, the Sphinx, Scylla and Clytemnestra.

There are many many more examples from the 19th Century artists and film noir in the last century. My late mentor, Theodore Lukits painted some of them (Theda Bara).

Symbolism

The symbolism of the vintage vamp grooming herself in front of a large art deco mirror suggests a visual image of a skull (symbolizing fatale). Indeed, Symbolist art uses the power of suggestion.

The way the entire image rises out of the water suggests that she is also a siren. I have contradicted the usual stance of symbolism, which is a reaction against realism (materialism) and aims to emphasize psychological and spiritual concepts (which are immaterial).

Contradicted? How? says you ... Well, I did not completely abandon realism here, but the visual pun switches back and forth readily without sacrificing either realism or symbolism. I flashed back to the vintage era to give her a sense of exotic history as we know it in film noir and the silent movies.

Pictorial and psychological symbols: Art Deco mirror motif (as mermaids are known to have mirrors), and her 1930's hairstyle to suggest the skull and eye sockets.