Mermaid Adilah Adopted Too!

I am so excited. I just found out that my second mermaid doll, Adilah was adopted today. I'm so happy that they will both be in good homes and that someone appreciates my art expression. A little bit of me will travel with my dolls to their new homes.

One of My Mermaids has been Adopted!!

I got s call earlier today from the curator at the City Gallery in Charleston. She wanted to tell me that Malika, one of my mermaid dolls has been adopted by someone  who was visiting the gallery. I was so honored just to be a part of this exhibit and now to find out that someone wants to take a piece of my work home is amazing to me.

I just assumed that both dolls and my quilt would be coming home in a couple of weeks. I'm so happy that she will be going to a good home. It's always a little bittersweet for me because I miss my dolls when they are adopted but so happy when someone else loves them too.

Mermaids

Yemaya’s Feast Day Celebration September 7^th, 2012

As part of the three day Opening weekend for Mermaids and Merwomen in Black Folklore: A fiber Arts Exhibiton we invite you to join us,

September 7^th at 6:30  pm Fort Moultrie, Sullivans Island,  South Carolina, for a very special Celebration.

September 7^th is the Feast Day to honor Mermaid goddess Yemaya.

According to Yoruba elders, The Black Mermaid  is the "unseen mother present at every gathering."

 She is omnipresent and omnipotent. Her power is represented in Yoruba teaching  reminding us that "no one is an enemy to water."

       High Chief, High Priest Nathaniel Styles of the Yoruba Kingdom, will introduce and educate us as how to honor and celebrate the Black Mermaid Yemaya.

       You’ll gather in a circle, that represents the eternal cycle of life.

Your heart and feet will turn towards home, and then deeper to our first home, the waters, as the ancient beating of the drums of The god Sango will sound.  Nigerian Prince Aderele will fly in from the Motherland especially for this celebration,the Prince  will call down  Sango The God of Thunder      to beat his Spirit drum, dance His Sacred Dance, and he will perform for us the fire eating ritual  in honor of the Deities as a purification rite.

You will have a once in a life time experience.

      Yemaya invites you to reclaim our feminine strength to take in  universal wisdom of the water goddess.

 Being  whole means to be balanced. “The goddess woman whole in

herself. She speaks to us of a power that is our birthright. And our men are more at peace when they too join the circle of celebration, as all men need to rebalance the masculine and feminine energy as well.

To know ourselves means to know one another.

We are asked to wear white if possible and to bring a financial offering for the Chief High Priest and Prince.

You are also invited to share a meal with us afterwards. Chief High Priest will also take appointments for private sessions.

Mermaids

I finally got my artwork off to the gallery in South Carolina. I finished three pieces, two dolls and a wall hanging. I've already introduced my two mermaid dolls Malika and Adilah. They are on their way to the City Gallery at Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina via their magic coach courtesy of UPS.

The third piece that the gallery accepted is a wall hanging I did called "The Rescue".

I used textile pants by Jacquard to paint the background.

I wanted the sky to be at sunrise when the sun is just emerging from the horizon and the colors are shades of pink and coral and the night sky begins to disappear and the day time sky begins to show itself.

The rocks, the mermaid and her rescue were cut from the pattern that I drew and quilted and appliqued to the background.









I love to use glass beads to add shine and texture to my quilts. I cut out some fish from a piece of fabric that I found and appliqued them with the glass beads.

I used more glass beads on the mermaid's tail and beads and shells around the rocks.

Mermaids

My second mermaid doll is Adilah which is Swahili for justice. She also a hero and protector of her people. Her legend is that once, she was a captured slave who was thrown over board while crossing the ocean on a slave ship. Because she was brave and unselfish her life was spared and her broken legs were transformed into a fish tail.

 I wanted Adilah to be a little different than my first mermaid Malika. She is still a strong woman.

 I used more natural elements to create her look. She wears a belt made of glass beads, coconut beads and cowrie shells. Her color palette is watery silvers, blues and teals. She wears a cotton cloth halter that might have been a torn remnant of her clothes when she lived on land.





She carries a fish that she caught for dinner and a bag of shells in a fishnet.

Her thick curly hair is held with a beaded headband and her blue "fishy" tail is beaded with clear glass beads to look like bubbles.

Mermaids

My two mermaid dolls are almost on their way to the Waterfront Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina. I also had time to create a beaded, quilted wall hanging that was also accepted. Now, I have to follow the appropriate steps to ship them to the gallery and prepare them for display.

I wanted to create mermaids that were a little different,

I didn't want them to be just pretty girls floating in the water. I have to admit, raising two sons who were very into super heroes and now having to grandsons who are also into "heroes" influenced my creative process for this first doll. I am very inspired by my oldest grandson Paul who is becoming an awesome cartoon animator and is studying media in high school and will soon be off to college. All four of my grandchildren and my nephew Demetrius are creative artists and have been creating beautiful images since they were very young.                  

My first mermaid is Malika. She became a mermaid warrior queen fighting for the survival of her people. Her color palette is coppers and golds and she carries a sword ready to do battle for justice.

I used gold beads, charms and gold braid to create her look and because she is a queen she wears a crown. When I finished her body I couldn't figure out what was missing and it dawned on me that she needed a belly button.

Her "fishy" tail and lower body are painted with Lumiere Metallic textile paints by Jacquard and Scribbles Iridescent textile paints that are layered to get a more complex texture. I used a leopard stencil to get the effect of scales.

 I added gold beads to her tail just to add extra glitz.

She has thick "dreaded" hair with coppery red streaks and a sassy attitude.

Malika is Swahili for queen so it seemed most fitting that that should be her name.








Stayed tuned for pictures of mermaid #2 and a very ambitious wall hanging that I couldn't stop adding to. It was almost addictive.

Mermaids

I’m so excited! I found out a little early but my two mermaid dolls were accepted by the jury for the “Mermaids and Merwomen in Black Folklore” exhibit. For me it’s a big deal because I’ve never been part of a national exhibit. 

My mermaids are not traditional. Before I began their design, I imagined the story that they would tell me. Who were they, where did they come from, how did they become mermaids, when did they live what kind of lives did they live. I usually go through this same process with every doll I design. I didn’t want either of my mermaids to be just pretty girls with “fishy” tails that just floated around in the water. I wanted them to have strong characters with a purpose. Once I imagined their characters, the dolls seemed to come easy.  Their “spirits” gave me all of the details about what they should look like. Since the theme of the exhibit is based on Black History, legends and folktales it was easy to give my imagination free reign.