NOTE: One of our faithful participants pointed out that the woman in the collage above is NOT Elizabeth Bathory-this painting can bew found widely on the internet identified as Elizabeth but is actually not. For that reason we have removed the sample of the original portrait that was posted originally.
I am so glad that when invited my dear friend and fellow artist Dian Crayne said a big YES to becoming part of the Collage Obsession panel which creates the challenges we offer you each week.
Dian besides being an accomplished artist is a well know author who writes everything from Fan Fiction to Mysteries.
Her agile mind ranges from the complex obscure to the erotique and covers most of the territory in between!
I think you will Find her a spicy new addition to our camaraderie...
Rick
"For my first challenge I was thinking how popular VAMPYRS are in today's pop culture.
Based on legends surrounding figures like Vlad the Impaler and Hollywood's interpretations of works by Bram Stoker and others "The children of the night" have flourished and are perhaps more popular now than every before.
Recently attention has turned to less well known figures than Dracula and for my first challenge I suggest ELIZABETH BATHORY.
The native form of this personal name is ecsedi Báthory Erzsébet. This article uses the Western name order.
Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, Alžbeta Bátoriová in Slovak; 7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614) was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of Hungarian nobility. Although in modern times she has been labelled the most prolific female serial killer in history, her guilt is debated. She is nevertheless remembered as the "Blood Countess" or "Blood Queen."
She and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls, with one witness attributing to them over 650 victims, though the number for which they were convicted was 80. Elizabeth herself was neither tried nor convicted. In 1610, however, she was imprisoned in the Csejte Castle, now in Slovakia and known as Čachtice, where she remained bricked in a set of rooms[clarification needed] until her death four years later.
Later writings about the case have led to legendary accounts of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth and subsequently also to comparisons with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and to modern nicknames of the Blood Countess and Countess Dracula."
While you may not wish to do Bloody Liz herself how about a work based on a beautiful and seductive Female Vampyr?
I have provided a portrait of Elizabeth which you may or may not use as you like and I am also adding the collage Rick did some time ago when I first offered a challenge based on this topic.
Have fun and pleasant dreams...
Dian
