Serbian Lazarus Song

Serbian women singing
8.5" x 11", 2013
pencil, watercolor

Pictured are a group of seven Serbian women engaged in song. These seven women are found on the cover of the LP СРПСКА НАРОДНА МҮЗИКА or SERBIAN FOLK MUSIC. The second song of side B of this marvelous album side is May This Tree Bear Fruit, a Lazarus 'to the fruit-bearing tree', from the village of Surlica in the Pčinja region. It is sung by six girls which rules out the possibility that the seven women pictured are the singers of the song. Overlap is possible though, some of the younger women in this group may well be a part of the group of six girls (called a lazarice—I don't know if, and how, this is related to Lazarus). The LP was produced in Belgrade in 1981, the music recorded in 1978. I'm surprised that the name Yugoslavia isn't even used on the album, as Serbia was not an independent country yet, or again. I spent way too much time on this insignificant little watercolor. My intention was to make a gestural sketch of the seven women and ink it in. In stead I found myself getting real tight and precise and before you know it, the evening has passed (I might as well just watched a movie).