Today's piece features a swamp zombie theme and uses the image of the only zombie ever photographed, Felicia Felix-Mentor. The original photograph, taken by Zora Neale Hurston, does not reveal much detail and looks as though her eyes are closed. I wanted to let her see so I painted some eyes for her. I also painted an image of les Grande Zombi on her forehead. In New Orleans Voodoo, zombies are often portrayed as Simbi, the water serpent. If you look closely, you will see a water moccasin swimming in the water in the background.
As the story goes, Felicia Felix-Mentor was found wandering half-naked on a road in Haiti's Artibonite Valley. To everyone's surprise, she was was identified by her father and brother as Felicia Felix-Mentor. However, in 1907 she reportedly died from a sudden fever. The now infamous ethnographer and writer, Zora Neale Hurston happened upon her while she was at the hospital and took a photograph of her. I can't imagine that she would have only taken one photo of her, given she was an ethnographer. But, this is the only photo I have ever found, and it is reportedly the only photograph of a real zombie ever taken. According to Zora Neale Hurston:
"The sight was dreadful. That blank face with the dead eyes. The eyelids were white all around the eyes as if they had been burned with acid. There was nothing you could say to her or get from her except by looking at her, and the sight of this wreckage was too much to endure for long."
At the same time Ms. Hurston observed Felicia, a psychiatrist named Louis Mars also observed her and attributed her strangeness to schizophrenia. You can read more about it here:
The Story of Zombi in Haiti
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