Excitement Reigns! The Mummy's Curse™️ Board Game

THROWBACK THURSDAY

This was originally published in August 2021. I am re-publishing it here because the game Frank Holmes and Jill Mackie created and fine-tuned is deserving of a wider audience. Board games are back. Hence, we are seeking a publisher.

While visiting fine artists Frank Holmes and Jill Mackie, I was introduced to a unique board game called The Mummy's Curse™️. It has all the elements you want in a game, including that undefinable "cool" factor. I mean, who hasn't been fascinated by the Sphinx,  Great Pyramid and mummies at one time in their lives?

Like all the best games, The Mummy's Curse is a family board game that has been designed to be easy enough for kids yet interesting enough for adults. As you can see in the photos here there's a Sphinx, a Pyramid, a Golden Mummy, and a Curse. 

The goal, if you want to play, is to break the Curse by stealing the Mummy from its Burial Chamber in the Pyramid, then getting back safely to the Start/Finish with it. To achieve this players must equip themselves with Supplies and Answer a Question from the Sphinx.

Whereas the game is an entirely new entity, it has some traditional elements, such as moving pieces around the outside rim as in Sorry or Monopoly. As in Monopoly, which has Community Chest and Chance cards, this game also has a number of cards as follows.

The Sphinx's Questions are on cards (all different) that each player receives. The answer to a Question is on two other cards that rhyme with each other and with the Question. (The Sphinx is very clever.) The cards are drawn as players roll a die and move around the outer path. Answering the Question is your primary objective.

It is equally important to gather Supplies, which you can do by landing on a Supply square and rolling a certain number. When a player has Answered the Question and gathered the necessary Supplies, the player gets to present him or herself to the Sphinx, receive Amulets and proceed to the Pyramid.

While all this is going on, Eye cards are being drawn as well. Eye cards are valuable and allow players to do many things. For example, the Freeze card allows you to stop another player for two turns. The "Go Where You Want" card lets you do just that. The "Wild Card" lets you move one to six spaces without rolling the die. And then there's the "Help Yourself" card, a nasty little maneuver that allows you to take an Answer card or Answer Rhyme from another player. Finally there's a "Supply Grant!" card, which will assist you in getting the Supplies you need the most. 

The first player to reach the Pyramid lifts it from its place and sets it on its side. Underneath is a chart which is now visible. The Chart shows which supplies are required to traverse a labyrinth-like network of paths to reach the Burial Chamber. (Who doesn't like labyrinths?) Once there, the two sarcophagi must be removed to expose the Golden Mummy. Whoever lifts the inner sarcophagi gets to take the Mummy, as well as the special Blue Amulet it rests on... and to head for the Start/Finish.

This last dash, however, is not so easy. Other players want it and may take it by landing on whoever has it. (Don't despair. You can get it back.) The Mummy can also be lost to the Curse if a certain number, established in the Burial Chamber, is rolled. Amulets, including the special one, offer protection but it's a treacherous time. The Mummy is almost certain to change hands in this final phase of the game. You may be assisted by Eye cards here, if you have held on to them. Oftentimes players who thought they were without hope come back and win. 

Created and perfected in Narrowsburg, New York

To quote Sir Winston Churchill here: "Never, never, never, never give up." 

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One of my earliest published articles, and the first for which I was paid, was titled Make a Game of It. My theme was that teaching can be fun when we use a little creativity to make a game of it. Over the years I created a number of games myself, and it was fun to see the intriguing project Frank Holmes and Jill Mackie had concocted as you can see here.

"We've played it hundreds of times," Jill said, the primary aim being continuous improvement. 

If you're a board game publisher, contact me at ennyman3@gmail.com. This is a game that's ready for prime time. 

THE STORY

Frank and Jill get the ball rolling. 1988.

Long ago in very ancient Egypt, there ruled a pharaoh who cared more for gold than anything else in the world. He put a terrible curse of greed on his people, from which they suffered greatly, fighting amongst themselves for wealth and power. When he died his mummified body was wrapped in bands of gold and buried deep within a massive pyramid--to be guarded forever by an all-knowing sphinx.

Now, many centuries later, the dreadful curse still emanates from the pharaoh's tomb and greed has enveloped the entire world--you may have noticed it yourself! The only way to end this plague of avarice is to find the golden mummy and to take it from its chamber of evil power, away from the pyramid to, according to legend, the very place the curse began.

So, players, an exciting and ennobling experience awaits you. Prepare well and honor the sphinx's demands, which will allow you to enter the pyramid. Your task is not an easy one and pitfalls await--any or all of you may succumb to the debilitating effects of greed. Whatever happens, remember your one and only goal is to break the curse!

Related Links

Veteran Painter Frank Holmes Discusses His Prix de Rome and Life as an Artist

"Paintings Now & Before: Figures, Flowers, Landscapes" and an Introduction to Jill Mackie

Frank Holmes' Portrait of A. Lee Sackett in the Style of Ingres

A. Lee Sackett by Frank Baker Holmes
Oil on panel, 22" x 19"

Frank Baker Holmes is a masterful painter who was awarded the Prix des Rome at the time he was my instructor (when I was a student in the College of Fine Arts) at Ohio University in 1973. I 've been following his career, albeit from a distance, ever since and have enjoyed each new veer. 

This summer I inquired as regards what he's been working on since I last visited his studio/home in 2019. He responded by sending this portrait of A. Lee Sackett in the style of Ingres.

For those unfamiliar, Jean-Augustine-Dominique Ingres was a French neoclassical painter of the early part of the 19th century. At the age of 22, he made his Salon debut in 1802. He was strongly influenced by past artistic traditions, just as Holmes is today.

The subject in Frank Holmes' portrait, A. Lee Sackett, had a long and distinguished career as an exhibit designer (among other things) with Parks Canada. 

As you can see from the portrait below, Holmes' painting is ‘related’ to Ingres portrait of Louis-Francois Bertin. Bertin was a French writer, art collector and director of the pro-royalist Journal des débats.

Portrait of Louis-Francois Bertin by Ingres

Another feature of this painting that interested me was that his life partner Jill Mackie is also a portrait painter.  In fact, I've privately dubbed her "the portrait painter of the family." This is not to suggest that Frank hasn't done his share of portraiture. 

Some of Jill Mackey's paintings have hung in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. Here's an excerpt from a 2017 interview: "Portraiture appeals to me because of the simplicity and beauty and character of the human being. It never fails me that in drawing and painting a portrait, the person begins to glow from the soul as we work."

I think Frank has captured a little bit of that glow in his Ingres-style portrait of A. Lee Sackett.

Related Links
"Paintings, Now & Before: Figures, Flowers, Landscapes" and an Introduction to Jill Mackie
Veteran Painter Frank Holmes Discusses His Prix de Rome and Life as an Artist
Almost Wordless Wednesday: Frank Holmes Studio Tour

Thriving After a Setback: Artists Frank Holmes and Jill Mackie Revisited

A Most Unusual Portrait: The Sarcophagus

Jill Mackie Studio Tour

Flashback Friday: Contemporary Artists Frank Baker Holmes and Jill Mackie

Frank Holmes & Jill Mackie

I met Frank Holmes through the fine arts program at Ohio University in the early 70s. His paintings were impressive, so much so that he won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1973.

A few years ago we re-connected, sharing a backwards look at our mutual careers. It seemed that his path as an artist had many valuable lessons for other artists with their lives ahead of them, so I wrote a couple blog posts in which I shared his story and his paintings. 

When I visited his home and studio in Narrowsburg, NY I met his wife Jill Mackie, an artist in her own right, who has had paintings displayed in the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. 

Here are some links to my interviews with these two impressive painters whom I am grateful to have known.

Veteran Painter Frank Holmes Discusses His Prix de Rome (Part I) 

Veteran Painter Frank Holmes Discusses His Prix de Rome (Part II) 

A Most Unusual Portrait: The Sarcophagus

Frank Holmes's Personal Agony and Ecstasy: The Ohio Theater 

My 2018 Studio Tour

A Jill Mackie Interview

Jill Mackie Studio Tour

Backstory on The Big Date

* * * 

"Dusk Call" An example of three-point perspective.

Thriving After A Setback: Artists Frank Holmes & Jill Mackie, Revisited

In April 2018 I drove up to Narrowsburg, New York, to visit two exceptional painters, Frank Holmes and Jill Mackie. During our visit I was struck by their residence and the manner in which they occupied it. It's a two-story house with a fair amount of history. When you enter the front door you discover that the main floor  is divided by a massively wide hallway.

To the right is the studio of Frank Baker Holmes; to the left that of Jill Mackie. Each workspace is well-lit by sunlight streaming through windows aplenty, with each studio space reflecting the personality of its inhabitant.

In my most recent visit to see Frank and Jill in  Narrowsburg two weeks ago I gained a deep appreciation for their resilience and the manner in which they bounced back into their life voyages after a near-devastating electrical fire that started within the walls of an upstairs bathroom. For a month (or months) they were displaced as the renovation was undertaken. They were now getting on with their lives and their work, the disruption now a distant blip in the rearview mirror. It was as if the near disaster never happened.

* * * * *
While reflecting on the visit I was left with the impression that the walls of an artist's studio are a form of autobiography. The studio walls speak volumes about an artist's interests, and perhaps his or her psyche as well. Though I've observed this to some degree in past visits to artist's studios, it especially hit me on this occasion.

If you were ever to visit you'd find the house is nestled amongst large, old growth deciduous trees alongside a river that runs through Narrowsburg. To reach this place requires driving some distance through the Eastern Alleghenies, on beautiful stretches of road that weave through the Poconos if coming from the South. It's remote. It's idyllic. And for me it's always an uplift.

* * * *
When you visit with kindred spirits or old friends, there's never enough time it seems. I met Frank when he was a painting instructor at Ohio University in 1972-3. This was the year before he won the Prix de Rome. His presence on campus caused a stir amongst art school students like myself. He was painting realistically at a time when Pop Art and all forms of abstract and New York School expressionism were in vogue. He was going against the grain.

That isn't what made his explorations of three-point perspective so interesting. It's that he did it so well, in such tedious, meticulous detail.

When I'd last been to their studio home I saw the new direction Frank was moving toward. He showed me a couple colored plinths he'd painted. (A plinth is a heavy slab used to support a statue or vase, or Corinthian pillar.)  Like his earlier work he continues to wrestle with perspective, space and color. Unlike that early work, there is much more simplicity. The elements have been sheared into their essential forms.

* * * *

Sketches.

We broke for a light lunch upstairs, accompanied by light jazz piano compositions, Alan Broadbent, filtering in from the living room. Somewhere along the way I learned the unusual story of how Frank and Jill's lives became intertwined.

Frank first saw Jill at the New York gallery that was representing him. She left before he could learn her name. When he tracked her down he discovered that they were both from Detroit originally and that, in fact, the same doctor had delivered them when they were born. What's more, they each had the same pediatrician. How uncanny is that? There were other points at which paths crossed as well.

Jill has made contributions to Frank's work, stating that Jill was an excellent critic. "I'll ask for her opinion on decisions."

One of Frank's paintings features a rug, but it's not a painting of a rug. It is drawn from his mind and represents what a rug might look like. "It's not a copy." Yet it appears utterly authentic.

I asked about the undecorated walls and he stated that "I want them to be empty. I wanted it to be easy, but it never is." It always requires "torturous changes" to make them good.

* * * *
Random Snaps from Frank Holmes' Studio Walls

Portrait Artist Jill Mackie
Here are two striking Jill Mackie paintings. Jill's career got a big boost when one of her pieces was included in a show at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. three decades ago. Today she continues to do commission portraits as well as show her work. You can catch a feel for Jill's studio here.

Reflecting a mindful wistfulness.

Over the course of our meal the subject of films inserted itself into the conversation. Films they recommended included: Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Searching for Sugarman and House of Plantagenet, We also discussed Lost Horizon and The Asteroid while jazz pianist Alan Broadbent, played in the background (on CD).

* * * *
It was nice to see Frank and Jill thriving after their setback, grateful that they were not out of town at the time of the fire.

Related Links
"Paintings, Now & Before: Figures, Flowers, Landscapes" and an Introduction to Jill Mackie
Veteran Painter Frank Holmes Discusses His Prix de Rome and Life as an Artist
Almost Wordless Wednesday: Frank Holmes Studio Tour

* * * *

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Jill Mackie's Studio Is Cool

Last Wednesday I flew home from a two week road trip that included Tampa, Washington D.C. and my mom's home in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. The last day of my trip I took advantage of an opportunity to visit the home and studios of artists Frank Holmes and Jill Mackie in Narrowsburg, New York. Narrowsburg is a small town less than 500 in population on the edge of the Delaware River just northeast of Scranton, PA.

The home is exactly what you might expect find when two world-class painters take up residence somewhere. The house is large, lovely and ideally suited for painters. The main floor consists of an entryway with a wide foyer/hallway that goes to the rear of the dwelling, symmetrically dividing the space here into three sections. To the right you will find the studio of Frank Holmes, 1973 winner of the Prix de Rome. To the left you will see the studio of Jill Mackie, who has had work displayed in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. When the sun shines, both studio spaces have an abundance of light from their expanse of windows.

Like myself, Jill Mackie is fascinated with faces. Here's a link to our interview last fall, and here are a few snapshots I grabbed while visiting last week.