I mentioned that I was listening to" Song To the Moon" from Rusalka when I was painting my rabbits on the moon for our Lunar New Year and somehow I have not been able to clear that image from my thoughts.
Rusalka as I understand is a character in Slavic folklore and though it has many variations it nonetheless seem to involve spirits of the female gender and it lives in a body of water luring or haunting men, depending on how you look at it. I suppose it is haunting if the woman died in tragedy and her spirit has not seen salvation or her death has not been avenged.
The Rusalka I referred to in my blog is the protagonist in an opera written by Antonin Dvorak. The work tells the story about a water nymph Rusalka who falls in love with a mortal prince and bargains with a witch to turn her into a human to accommodate the potential relationship. The price she pays is that she would be turned into a mute and become a mortal and the prince will die if he does not love Rusalka, who will in turn be damned eternally. As with all great love stories, tragedy is the only viable conclusion. Nobody wins in the end, the prince dies and Rusalka is damned. It makes the song even more haunting. The libretto of this opera has Rusalka professing her love for the prince to the moon in the opening act and asking the moon to help convey her love.
As I am writing this down, I am reminded of other friendships between the mortals and the immortals that are prevalent in other cultures. Obviously everyone is familiar with the "Mermaid".
In Chinese culture I can think of at least two very popular folklores that pertain to such a union. The story of "Goddess Marriage" or "Fairy Couple" (天仙配) is about the marriage of the 7th daughter of the Heavenly Emperor to a mortal who exhibited qualities of scholarship and filial duty. The interesting thing about this folklore is that it has several different versions, and not all endings are tragic.
In "Legends of the White Snake" (白蛇傳) a folklore that tells the story of how a white python was able to be transformed into a beautiful lady, thus deemed an "unclean spirit" by priests. The white python marries a mortal and a priest is determined to "exorcise" this mortal's wife, breaking up the union. This folklore has something similar to Rusalka, in that the relationship between the mortal and immortal is brokered or intervened by a witch, or a priest. Whilst the story of Rusalka ends in sadness the story of "Legends of the White Snake" has a happy ending. Perhaps it is a statement that true love gets rewarded and humanity embraces even "unclean spirits".
Enough of a segue, time to paint my thoughts on paper.
My Rusalka is a lady poking her head out of water in a moon lit night, having a pensive moment with the the moon in the backdrop. Needless to say, this renowned soprano aria "Song to the moon" is playing in the background. My painting of "Whiter Shade of Pale" introduced me to painting of human forms. Through those months of paying closer attention to the human body, I have a deeper appreciation of why Da Vinci studied human anatomy. For me, I find the human neck to be an object of fascination. I particularly enjoy how the sternocleidomastoid muscle (the 2 big muscles at the sides of our neck) in the neck twists and turns with the head, sometimes highly visible, and other times disappears beneath the skin. I also enjoy its relationship with the clavicle, and how the depression at the bottom of the neck ebbs and flows with our posture. A big lovely dimple.
Thus I shall attempt to showcase the neck of my water nymph. Try anyways.
A study drawing
I am using a very fibrous heavy Xuan. I like the fact that this paper allows the color to float and disperse on it momentarily before fully soaking it in. Hopefully it will help embody the ambience of a night scene with less than well defined lines; with the visible fibers strands adding to the ambiguity.