The Portland Dancing Witches are a local offshoot of the viral phenomenon of the German dancing witch coven's Wolfshager Hexenbrut performance. Each Halloween season for the past few years, they've performed at various events and spots around the region. Today, it was Davis Graveyard.
Anna getting her witch on ♡
Davis Graveyard, a new experience for me, is truly a marvel: An entire cemetery of incredibly well-wrought headstones, hand made out of board, polystyrene foams, textural covering, canvas, paint, and similar materials, created by a single enthusiastic couple who live there. The couple teaches classes on how to imitate their creations. The whole exhibit takes month to complete. The place is only open for wandering one day out if the year, and neighbors have resigned themselves to the Halloween madness each year.
On Opening Day, the sculptural presence is accompanied by a small creepy goods market (including photos by Scott Tice), tarot readings, face painting, and live performances. This last included a pack of girl zombies with fabulous makeup and dresses enhanced with rips, drops of expanding foam, and splatter paint --- done to Thriller, of course --- and us Dancing Witches.
Already having photos of the witches, my focus was on the incredible decor of false stone, brick and other textures:
Face-painting and mystical readings
A cool postplate
But the happiest surprise was yet to come. The headstones tended to feature famous people or characters with equally famous last words, or at least well-known quotes. Some were moving or wistful, others made me laugh out loud, all of them making me consider with what sort of flair I'd like to exit the world. And who should I find among the erstwhile but my old master, Snape!
These folks really did our beloved snarky teacher justice: Not only did they give him a headstone with his most poignant trademark word "Always" on it, but carved an actual likeness of him --- and an incredibly well-done one at that. He almost looks like he's rising out of the ground to glower at us! This couple of sculptors is truly expert. My post of this quickly passed 100 likes on the Severus Snape Fan Club; though when a few members insisted that he wasn't really dead, I cheerfully agreed.
A few more shots of these delightful headstones, if headstones can in fact be such.
I think my favorite last words of this lot, though, might have to be, "Peace out, bitches." There's something so bold and, well . . . Pennzoil Alyzrinol about them, even if she doesn't meet her time in my story.
I'm sure Snape loves the red tricycle.
The neighbors get into the spirit, but issue warnings at the same time.
Afterward, Wanda hung out at the house with us and our new Halloween decoration, and agreed she'd found the perfect man: Not merely skinny, he also doesn't give her any verbal crap!
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