Part the Third of Where the Mermaid Came From

Part the Third~
Finally, We are getting close to the end of our little story. In the last bit, our girl had shut herself away, but still dreamed of the many people and things she missed from earlier in her life. She went on alone and tried to create little things. She had always liked to make art of some kind or another and so she continued to do this as much as she could. Every once in a while, someone would stop by for a chat and she would give them a pretty bead or button and they would give her a sweet little gift. Or, a wonderful letter would arrive in the mail. Old friends were always welcome as well as new folks with open minds.



Sometimes, she would get out some clay, paint, yarn and fabric and sculpt and sew dolls. They were like little friends from her imagination. She found them to be sweet but sometimes other folks thought they were scary. This, she did not understand. How could these little creatures be scary or have bad intentions? They were made from a place of joy. It was a good thing no one was being forced to look at these creations.










And, since she had several Faerie Friends who loved anything sparkly that caught the sun or moonlight, our girl collected beads and strung necklaces to hold little vials of their pixie dust for her friends and made them little crowns to wear which made her happy and made the Faeries happy as well. They would fly to her window and she would show them their new crowns and they would laugh with glee and stay for Faerie cakes and Jasmine tea tell her fantastical stories from the magical woods which would inspire our girl to make more art. She loved her Faeries friends dearly. They held her hand many times as she fell asleep at night and this helped to ease her anxious mind.





So, with this inspiration, sometimes our girl would get out her paints and paper and make art this way. Again, she would be inspired by vintage fashion and history, cultures from around the world, and Folk and Fairy Tales. And again, while some liked her paintings, others said that there must indeed be something very wrong with the girl as her creations were "off", "not normal", and "too dark". Our girl tried to see her pieces like this but she could not. She just saw all the gorgeous colours, people, animals and things she loved.




Our girl did not need or want to be seen as odd and not normal on top her sad state so thought long and hard about giving up making all her art(she never even really called it 'art'-it was just something she had always done). She would try again and again, but all these ideas would come sneaking back into her head. Fantastical people and creatures would whisper "Make Me!". So, she would get her supplies back out and start again. This is where we will leave her for now.

next~ Part the Fourth

photos~
Mariano Fortuny's studio, photos of my own dolls, jewelry, faerie friends and paintings, illustrations by Angela Barret and Trina Schuart Hymen