Portfolios > Mermaids

My mermaids are like women in contemporary society, who, in spite of the changes of recent decades, still often find themselves not being heard, without voices, or otherwise unable to impact their situations. My mermaids are fully dressed and submerged in water up to their chests. They are captured in different seasons, in frozen, stormy water or buried in fallen tree leaves. I see them as misplaced and “captured.” In many of the drawings, they try to talk, signal, see, or generally connect with the world they partly belong to, but seem unable to explore out. I like the idea of using the mythological character of the mermaid and twisting the expectations of the viewer for that character both visually and conceptually. My mermaids are women without voices: they see, but are not seen; they hear, but are not heard, and they are not truly mobile.
My work starts from the individual—me, the little person, the subjective experience—and grows to a much larger structure: a society, an environment. One sick tree is not a huge loss, but a sick orchard, a sick forest is. One blinded woman (or mermaid) is just a personal tragedy; but a lake, a sea, an ocean full of them is a catastrophe.

Mermaids: Hide and Seek
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
30” X 23”
2015
Mermaids: Leda
Mixed media on paper
30” X 23”
2015
Mermaids: Leda
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
detail
2015
Mermaids: Ice
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
30” X 23”
2015
Mermaids: Ice
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
detail
2015
Mermaids: Spring Magnolias
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
30” X 23”
2015
Mermaids: Fog
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
23”X30”
2015
Mermaids: Stormy Night
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
30” X 23”
2015
Mermaids: Distant Landscape
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
23” X 30”
2014
Mermaids: Reverberation
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
46" X 30"
2014
Mermaids: Song
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
23" X 30"
2013
Mermaids: Gaze
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
23" X 30"
2013
Mermaids: Song II
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
23" X 30"
2013
Mermaids: Gaze II
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
30" X 23"
2013
Mermaids: Gaze III
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
30" X 23"
2013
Mermaids: Autumn Leaves
egg tempera and china marker on hand-made paper
Mermaids: Autumn Leaves
2014