Dia De La Muertos Vanitas or the Enchanted Victorian Doll

It’s the Winter Solstice time of the year when the days get shorter and the nights get longer. This is the time when we love to celebrate Halloween and Dia de la Muertos. Things this time of year get a little hazy between the land of the living and the land of the dead. This brings me to my story. Early in October I went out to get my Halloween decorations and in the box was a Victorian Doll that I had never seen before. I put my uneasiness aside and just figured that I don’t remember getting this doll because my memory isn’t the best these days. Well as a wicked Halloween joke on my beloved Peter I moved her around the house a time or two but he didn’t seem to notice my prank so I stopped. Then the doll started to move about the house without my assistance, peeking around the corners, standing in my closet, hiding in the laundry and then one morning she appeared in my art studio! On my art table; I had a violin, a beautiful skull, some other odds and ends, and some lights I strung. That’s weird I thought, look what a lovely vanitas painting this could become. So I arranged the scene and began my painting. Oddly she did not move again until the painting was finished, I hope you love this enchanted vanitas painting that this little Victorian Doll Abagail inspired with her Halloween antics.

Dia De La Muertos Vanitas 

by

Judy Vars

Original Oil