Ethel Mermaid

I was asked to do a piece for an art auction at the Center for the Visual Arts in Wausau. I sell my cards in the gift shop there. It is called Just for the Art of It! and every artist is given a 12"x12" canvas for the Art by the Foot grid (last year's grid is on there). You can do whatever you want so I had a mermaid in my head. Before you think 'Wow, Ethel Mermaid is so clever! How'd she think of that?' I didn't think of it... Sesame Street did and I thought it was too funny to pass up.

My parents were on Sanibel Island, FL (the shelling capital of America) about 2 months before we were so I asked my mom to look for some purple scallop shells for the bra top and some other small shells for the base of the painting. So I used sandpaper along the bottom, found sea glass and tiny shells, acrylic paint for the water background and plants, glitter paper (yes, I punched out all those holes and glued them on... it took me around 4 hours!!) for the tail and other little fishies, paper for her body, a real starfish that my mom bought while in FL, seed beads for the necklace and fishy bubbles, embroidery floss for her hair and small silk flowers for her hair and for the plants. Overall, I thought it was pretty fun. Very kitschy! I almost didn't want to give it up!!

The auction was this past Friday night. However, I didn't post about it until now because all the pieces are supposed to remain anonymous until after they are auctioned off. I didn't go because I didn't want to see how much my piece would go for. The women that run the event (Katie & Jessica from the CVA), said that my piece was 'so you' which is really true, so anyone at the event who knows me would have easily picked out my piece. I had fun making it and pretty much did it the day before and day it was 'due'. Good thing I knew what I was doing in my head!