My “Hungry Mermaids” collection was inspired in 2014 by the now current knowledge I have of mermaids and their mysterious, non-existent lifestyle that we make out to be SO real. We are hungry for them and they are hungry for us. At first I was just going to show mermaids eating regular food and then I thought how boring is that when I can integrate a little pop culture. This would add some dark comedy and plot dimension to what would otherwise be just a 2D piece of art work. All art should be a 1,000 word STORY. I want all my art pieces to have people talking their 1,000 words and more about these…
Here are my reasons I started the collection:
1) I was raised next to the beach where starfish and seashells rule…and there are gadgets and gizmos of plenty
2) I am a Pisces, therefore I must cater in someway to all my fellow fishies on land and all the people who love us;)
3) I’ve lived half my life off the coast of Alaska–thanks to my commercial fisherman father who put me to work at the age of 9 on his boat. I had to endure jellyfish stings and seaweed literally raining down on me (see, I could totally BE a mermaid now that I think of it)
4) I hate my hair and have mermaid hair fantasies in my sleep–and then I wake up and I still look like Simba after he ran through an electrical plant after being chased by Wildebeest. Just a side note: All you ladies with your #iwokeuplikethis photos please go back to sleep because that ain’t how you woke up.
5.) See #2 (I had to make this a 5point bulletin but couldn’t come up with #5)
I have always been pretty fascinated by mermaids. First it was “The Little Mermaid.” Didn’t Ursula look like Danish supermodel Brigitte Nielsen’s evil sister? And let’s talk about Arial’s dad. Even as a little girl I was seriously mesmerized by King Triton’s torso–seriously, who looks that good for a 70yr old merman living off plankton. Com’n Disney. Next time I want to see more like the “Up” old man character topless and sporting a fin–Pixar, you have it right.
The next time mermaids stuck out to me was that short scene in one of my favorite movies “Hook.” Seriously I wish the producers had made Robin Williams/Peter just hold his breath for about 10 more minutes in that scene–I was so inspired by seeing non-animated mermaids for the first time.
Fast forward several years and the reality of mermaids hits the screen: “Pirates of the Caribbean” was the first time I found out mermaids were a little nasty. So I did some Wikipedia research on mermaid folklore and found out that mermaids are quite an enigma: The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transformed herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks and drownings. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same tradition), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.
Basically they are bipolar: just like how one half of their body does not match the other, neither do their emotions line up the same. So many young women are on the mermaid hair bandwagon now. Pinterest and weheartit have blown up with ombre pastel-colored hair pictures and now hashtags like #mermaidhairday have surpassed #badhairday. It is more than acceptable to go to your local salon and ask for a full neon dye of purple, pink or blue–thanks to mermaid-hair dabblers Katy Perry, Nicole Richie and Kelly Osbourne. As long as we have our imaginations, mermaids will continue to enthrall us all…..
