Watercolor Wisconsin 2009

RAM's Wustum Museum continues a splendid Racine tradition with the opening of Watercolor Wisconsin 2009. As one of the museum's most popular annual shows, this exhibition brings together works from artists throughout the state of Wisconsin. Organized by the museum since 1966, Watercolor Wisconsin exhibitions have established Wustum Museum as a center for watercolor activity in the Midwest. This year's show features 109 pieces by 88 Wisconsin artists.

Of 295 pieces submitted by 164 artists, approximately one third of the pieces were chosen for this year's show. Three new works from this year's competition will be purchased for the Racine Art Museum's permanent collection.

One of my watercolors, Tea Time, was among the submitted and selected pieces. This was the first time that I have submitted to Watercolor Wisconsin, so I feel very honored to now have my piece hanging at Wustum Museum until April 24, 2010.
In my haste to get the piece to Wustum before the deadline, I failed to snap a photo of it, so I will post that in April when the piece comes back home.

Watercolor Wisconsin 2009 runs from Dec. 13, 2009 to April 24, 2010. Wustum Museum is located at 2519 Northwestern Avenue, Racine, WI.

10% off paintings make great Christmas gifts !!!

Original artwork make great Christmas gifts.

Until Dec 31, 2009, I am offering 10% off of original paintings and prints on my website, http://www.bonnielynnsart.com Free shipping, up to $100 purchase is also included.

Because Paypal buttons will NOT comply with this offer on the website, go to the Ordering page and email or call me with your order. Mention the word SANTA to receive your 10% discount. I can accept Visa, MC, or Discover or a check (which must clear my bank before I send out the order).

This time of the year

This time of the year is always a little bittersweet for me.

I lost my father-in-law two days before Christmas to a massive heart attack and my dad, 3 days after Christmas to mesothelioma (lung cancer caused by asbestos).
One was taken quickly and one lingered slowly before being taken from my life.

I go through many emotions and tears at Christmas. The emptiness of death is too much to bear at times, but two beautiful, young grandchildren are helping to fill the voids. Watching them wide-eyed in wonderment of the tree, the lights, and the gifts helps to lessen the pain. Too many ornaments are bunched up on single branches of the tree. Christmas window stickers brings smiles and laughter to all that see my "beautiful" holiday decorations.

There is truly truth in the phrase, "God bless the little children." Children bring joy and laughter to an otherwise lonely heart.

May you experience children in your lives whether they are yours, your grandchildren or neighbors. They are truly a joy to behold.

Little Treasures from the Sea

I love to collect little treasures from the sea when I visit Florida or any of the islands I have scuba'd at. (is THAT a real word !! ha!).
I have large Mason jars filled with shells, but the one I like to show off is one that is filled to the brim with white, brown, green and aqua colored sea glass.

On browsing the internet one day, I came across the website of a delightful woman, Danielle Renee, who lives on the east coast, collects seaglass and creates the most beautiful jewelry from it. I had a larger piece of aqua glass that I thought would look splendid as a ring, so I contacted Danielle and she made an exquisite ring that I am proud to wear.

Along with selling her jewelry, Danielle attends Sea Glass Festivals and has tremendous knowledge of how to find and identify glass shards; the proper care of your sea glass jewelry and too much more to mention here. Danielle was also featured in the April 2009 issue of OCEAN magazine. You can find her ad in Coastal Living magazine also.

I hope that you will take the time to visit Danielle's website http://www.jewelrybydaniellerenee.com/ and find your special ring, bracelet or necklace from the sea.

Watercolor palette

The colors of the rainbow are evident in my watercolor palette. Rainbows aren't as messy as my palette is, but you can see that I love bright colors. They are very evident in my underwater paintings, both watercolor and oils.

Whenever I am having a "blue" day because of the dreary, rainy weather outside, I open my box of paints and I immediately take on a brighter attitude.

The painting of the waterlilies was inspired by a trip to St. Germain, in northern Wisconsin where I took close-up photos from a row boat of the lilies and pads popping through the water in East Bay.

SHARK !!!!!!

Last Monday, the 19th of Oct, I returned from a great diving trip to Nassau with 3 of my dive buddies: Cindy, Deena and Larissa.

I usually schlep around my dinosaur of an underwater SLR camera, but decided to wait until I got to our destination to rent a modern 12MP digital camera. Wow !!! I fell in love with it immediately. It was great to see what I had just shot and delete and re-do if I didn't like it.

I think I had the most fun with this camera on our 2 shark dives. We went to a place called Shark Wall, where for some reason, Caribbean Reef Sharks are plentiful. We dove side by side peacefully with the sharks. Once in awhile, they would curiously come nearer, but they mostly just held their distance. They have no intention of acting on their reputation...........being killing machines. I wish that more people could understand this about sharks. Long before Hollywood and Jaws, sharks got a bad rap. I'm not saying that there are not times that they do strike a human, but it is mostly NOT intentional. The silhouette of a surfer on a board or the splashing in shallow water that mimics a wounded fish, are just some of the reasons a shark may strike.

But anyway, this is about my wonderfully, emotional dives with the sharks. It never fails that I get tears in my eyes at the sight of them. They are one of the most beautiful creatures in the ocean.

Since I am back on dry land, all I have left are the memories and my photos.I hope you enjoy them.

Week 5- Airbrushed fish bowl

Although I love living in Wisconsin, I sometimes think I am living in the wrong part of the country. Since I learned to scuba dive in 1992, I have had fish running through my mind. I dream about diving, talk about diving and my paintings are usually of the underwater persuasion.

When told to buy a piece of glass for a project in airbrush class, I unconsciously bought a fish bowl !! This is what I ended up doing with it :

It glows beautifully with a small candle placed inside.

Silk Painting added to my resume

Along with all of the fun I am having in my airbrushing class, I decided to take a mini-course at UW-Parkside on Silk Painting.

How fun was this ??!! I am going to need another lifetime to work on all of the projects that I have running through my head. I am not, by any means, giving up on my watercolor and oil painting, I just wanted to expand my horizons. I'm very pleased with my first attempt at silk painting!

Airbrush class....week 5

Well, I would really have liked for you to see my project from this week's class, but I wasn't finished with it yet. We have now graduated to working on glass. I have a round shaped clear fishbowl........and you guessed it ! I'm airbrushing an underwater scene !! Fishes swimming in an aqua ocean, shaded in ultramarine blue and yellow seaweed.
I hope to have it posted by next week.

We have decided to extend the 6 week schedule for 2 more weeks.......8 classes in all.

Airbrush Class....Week 4 projects

And here are today's projects.

The one on the right is a t-shirt, but I couldnt get the whole thing on my scanner, so just use your imagination. I'm not quite ready to take over the airbrush booth at Great America just yet, but I have definitely improved since week 1 !!

Airbrushing is great fun !

There are now 6 of us in the airbrush class. We are taking this through Antioch Fine Arts Foundation, a neighboring town's art organization that I am a member of.

I forgot to post last weeks projects: (Sept22, ...week 3 of airbrush class). So here they are:

What's on my easel ??

I am gearing up for 3 upcoming shows......one in Florida and two in Wisconsin.

My brain is working overtime to try and paint something for everyone. Most of the shows in the north have to be barns, florals, etc, because those show-goers just don't connect with my underwater fishes and critters. There are a few, but not many.

I usually do scuba dive trade shows in Florida, but this year I was accepted to a fine art show in Estero, Fl. the 7-8 of November. I am trying to paint some more tropical scenes, etc. other than just my underwater, which I will also be showing there.


I guess I should try and decide which shows / pieces of art to do........underwater or barns, etc. Hmmmm.....I love them both, plus love the two different shows. Guess I'll just have to work overtime for now.Here is what is on my easel at the moment...

Dive with this place !!!?????

Would you like to go scuba diving with a place like this???

I had forgotten about this photo I had taken a few years ago in Florida. The sign amused me.

Thank goodness the place is no longer in business !!

Cupcakes

Whenever time allows, I like to do the exercise on the blog of Karin Jurick's blog, Different Strokes from Different Folks. This time it was a photo of cupcakes.





145 artists engaged in the challenge,.........here is my version.....

Air Brushing.....how fun !!!

As I mentioned before, I started an airbrush class. I want to try to add some different elements to my paintings, just for the fun of it, so I thought airbrushing might be what I'm looking for.

Here is what I did on my first class.........Just trying to get a feel for the airbrush

Now here is what I did this week........I'm improving !!!

AirBrush Class

I'm excited !!!! In about 2 hours, I will be starting an airbrush class. I bought a Badger Airbrush gun and an air compressor a few years ago, but could never seem to figure out quit how to use them. I was working on a wall as a canvas and had blue overspray all over the studio ! What a mess to clean up. So that was pretty much the last time I tried to use the airbrush. Then this class came along........so I quickly signed up.

I'll post examples of what I am learning as this progress.

Keyboard of the Winds

To continue on with showing you some of my commission pieces.................

"Keyboard of the Winds" was painted for a lady in Loveland, CO. Ths is a mountain range in Rocky Mountain National Park (13, 215 ft above sea level ), which consists of Longs Peak, Keyboard of the Winds, and Pagoda Mountain. They are a beautiful frame for Mills Lake below.

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings

Nature's place will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.

The winds will bless their own freshness into you, and the

Storms their energy while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

-------John Muir

Commissioned painting

Kevin's Cathedral, Colorado was a piece I did years ago for a dear friend of the family.

Kevin loves to live where its cold........Colorado, Washington, Alaska, (Fairbanks, Kotubue, Anchorage), Wyoming, Montana. He can't stand to be warm in any way. He even carries a portable fan in the trunk of his car to set up wherever he is that is beyond his comfort level.

This painting is from a place in the Colorado Rockies that was special to Kevin when he lived there. He would never reveal the exact location, just gave me pictures to compose it by.

Shark Awareness Week video

This is a shark awareness video by underwater photographer, author and shark advocate, Annie Crawley.

Please watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlGNGHApLHM

(Copyright, oil painting @Bonnielynn Brankey "Don't Let Them Fade Away")

http://www.bonnielynnsart.com/OceanColorsWhatsOnTheEasel.html

Publix grocery store sells shark meat

I was in Fort Myers Beach, Fl. in June and I did notice shark in the fish market section of the Publix store. I guess it must've slipped my mind by the time I got home, but this article from a twitter friend has reminded me of it again.
If I sound like I'm on a soapbox today about sharks, you betcha I am !!!


http://bit.ly/25gsV4

Dead Shark left laying in road

I have read and heard of some weird things before, but this one angers me. It is an article from the Associated Press in a Miami, Fl newspaper today. My love for wildlife, sharks and all sea creatures is very well known. I am too angry to comment on this article right now.

"The body of a shark was left lying in the middle of a downtown Miami street after two men tried to sell it to several fish markets. The men apparently carried the five or six foot long fish around on the city's Metromover downtown train, prompting calls to police.

News footage Tuesday night showed the dead animal in the street with police orricers and cruisers nearby. Two stations reported that a pair of men had tried to sell the animal to at least three fish markets for around $10.

Rob Orta, an employee at Casablanca Fish Market, told television station WSVN that the men offered his business the shark.

"But we don't buy sharks off the streeet, " Orta told the station.

Wildlife officials later determinmed the animal was a nurse shark. The case could result in misdemeanor charges of improper killing and disposal of an animal and selling a shark without a license.

One resident of teh area where the shark was dumped said he didn't know what was going on at first. "It was a relief that it was a shark," said Keith Smith. "When I first saw it, I thought it was a body because of all the shootings that have been going on."

Can You Help Us....Please ????

This is a poem written by a scuba diving buddy of mine about the sorrow of the dolphins and their need to swim free.

Attached is my newest painting, which just happened to be dolphins swimming free in the surf.

Can You Help Us.....Please????

The bright red sun rising in the East

the earth is slowly waking from a good night's rest

Birds are singing , stretching their wings...

preparing for a morning of feeding.

Out of the corner of my eye...

I see the others have just arrived.

To read the rest of this poem, please go to http://www.bonnielynnsart.com/OceanColorsMyPhotos.html

To see/purchase Dolphin Surf, go to http://www.bonnielynnsart.com/OceanColorsFishes.html

Graphite drawings

Just for a change of pace from my usual painting, I have been doing a few graphite drawings of my favorite underwater critters. I had forgotten how much I love to draw until I started working on them.

You can see more of them by going to http://www.bonnielynnsart.com/OceanColorsSmallPaintingsIII.html

DSFDF Pennsylvania Landscape

The Different Strokes from Different Folks challenge this time from Karin Jurick's blog was a Pennsylvania landscape.
We received the photo to do in black/white and our challenge was to invent the color.
Since I usually paint underwater scenes, this WAS a challenge for me ! The colors I deal with are much brighter.

Different Strokes

There is a blog that I discovered by a fellow artist, Karin Jurick, whereas she takes a photograph of something/ someone every few weeks, then offers artists to paint or draw their interpretation of that photo. The artists have two weeks to paint them, then send them to Karin for her to put on her blog named, Different Strokes from Different Folks.

This is the first time that I have done the challenge. It was a photograph of NewYorkCity-Madison Street.

Since I usually paint underwater fishes and scene, this was totally different subject matter for me. I found it fun. I don't feel like I was out of my comfort zone, because I am pretty comfortable painting most anything.

I had so much fun doing this, that I know I will be back to do more !

Dolphin Song

This is a poem, which later became a song, written by Olivia Newton-John.

See them playing in the moon light,

Watch them dancing a song.

Have they cared for each other?

There is no question , of course,

They deserve to be treasured as a source of love.

In their minds there are answers,

And in time we will know,

What the truth is about

Of what all we don't know.

They have no rule for hatred,

Thought they have suffered much pain.

"From the race we call human,

We are afraid a lot."

If I can only help to ride on with my dolphin song,

Then I have lived what I was set out to do.

If I can only make one man a will,

One passing care,

Then I fulfilled what I promised to.

Let us hope it is not too late,

And that we can mend all the pain

We have inflicted on a friend.

We were born with a freedom,

We were born with a truth,

Why then we abuse

If we could choose to love.

Dolphin Sketch

One of my favorite marine creatures is the dolphin.

While diving in Galapagos in 1997, three of us had just finished our dive and were getting ready to get into the Zodiac that would then take us back to the Galapagos Aggressor, our live-aboard for a week.

Out of nowhere, 3 dolphins showed up, swam around us for about 5 minutes, and then were gone.

That was one of those times when I have to say that I really felt the presence of God. The whole situation was so spiritual, and I cry every time I think about it.

Here is a book I am giving my niece who just graduated from college on Sat, May 9. The book is about never giving up on your dreams. She shares my love for dolphins, so I have drawn this inside the cover for her. I hope she doesn't see this blog entry before the book reaches her in the mail !

My 15 Minutes of Fame

One of my underwater paintings, titled Underwater Diptych, has been featured as the cover of the dive magazine Northeast Dive News. I thank the editor, Rick Stratton, for working so hard with me on this.

Need I say more???!!!!

Dive Shirt/Mug

I belong to an online scuba website, called DiveBuddy.com.
I recently painted some underwater images for the owner of the website of which he turned into
products for sale. To view these products and to buy them, click this link http://www.zazzle.com/divebuddy/gifts?cg=196888156461057352

The ocean gives back...........

A recent front page story of the SF Chronicle told the true story of a humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused > her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, and a line tugging in her mouth. A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands (outside the Golden Gate ) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she> was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. > When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around ~ she was thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.

Spring....Life renewed

Spring has finally arrived and with it comes new life and changes.....renewed, clean and fresh smelling.
I have been out of touch for a few weeks with personal business and a family death.........but I am now ready to get myself back on track with my painting and other things. One of the things I have been working on is to put Paypal on my website as an easier way of ordering paintings and prints. There are still a few bugs to work out on my Art Prints and Notecards and MiniPrints pages, so to get the reduced prices on these items, go to the Ordering page to email or phone me. I can take your credit card over the phone.

Getting back on track

Well, after my holiday of a week away, I was just settling back in to a work schedule when we received a call that a family member from another state passed on. Back into the car we went, and returned home last night ( Saturday). Today I accomplished not much but getting my taxes finished up and e-filed.
Starting on Monday, the 30th March, I hope to get myself back into my regular schedule of work, marketing, blogging and all that goes along with all of this.

Be Back Soon !

See you back here on March 21, 2009.

Commission Art

Although most of my art is for my website or galleries, I do paint commission pieces in the form of murals or paintings.

One that I recently finished was from a fellow scuba diver in California, who found me on ScubaBoard.com. Jennifer contacted me about doing a painting of a "Cabby", or cabezone, a fish from the scorpionfish family. She sent me images from her personal underwater library of the cabby and oil rigs that she wanted included into the painting.

After emailing back and forth to decide on size, etc, she gave me complete artistic license .
I started out making numerous sketches to help me decide how I wanted the final painting to look. On an unstretched piece of canvas, I started with blues and whites to get the feel of the sun streaming down on the skeletal structure of the oil rigs through the ocean. I then used the great photo she had of the cabby as reference and placed him to the front of the picture to represent the ledge he was sitting on. Much adjusting of color was made to the piece to get the feeling I sought after for this cabezone. After adding muscles, anemones and brittle stars, I signed the piece to call it finished.

Most commissions can be done in about two months. If you are interested in a custom piece, email me at dvrbon@wi.rr.com

New pricing / Paypal

I will be out of the studio from March 13 until March 21.
On my return, I will be putting Paypal buttons on my website to make it easier for you to "click and pay", instead of emailing me with your information all the time. I would still love to talk with you if you want to email or call me though.

I have also changed prices on my mini prints to keep up with the President's stimulus package.

New friends links

In my scuba diving and internet travels, I meet many wonderful people. Whenever possible I like to link them to my website.
Here are a few of my newest friends:

http://www.naturalseaglass.com/ Seaglass jewelry and other finds by Lisl Armstrong

http://www.jewelrybydaniellerenee.com/ Beautifully made jewelry to be featured in OCEAN magazine, April 2009

http://www.scubadivergirls.wordpress.com/ A fun group of women divers/ instructors in California

http://www.gordonisimo.com/ Scuba Mike and diving in the Canary Islands

Our World Underwater 2009

Our World Underwater 2009, was held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL , Friday, Feb 20 through Sunday, Feb. 22.

What a whirlwind of activity!

In depth seminars and workshops ranging from camera equipment to learning visual cylinder inspection, started on Friday at 8am and ran throughout the weekend. Presenters were some of the dive industries most noted figures: Stan Waterman, Richie Kohler, Annie Crawley, Bob Sheridan, and the list goes on and on. Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday, the exhibit hall opened its doors to about 20,000 visitors walking the aisles to see 200 + exhibitors. Booths consisted of dive travel destinations, camera equipment, SUDS, a kids painting fair with Rogest, dive shops, dive equipment, marine artwork (my booth included) , the Tim Early Foundation, PADI, DAN,DEMA, Diveheart and many more than can be listed here. Dive Buddy stickers were placed with several of the exhibitors and handed out to passing visitors, Divebuddy.com member, Robert Silva, talked with visitors at his booth about his upcoming world record attempt to do the longest freshwater dive.
Friday and Saturday evenings were the scene of exciting film festivals with emcees Michel Gilbert and Nancy McGee, and President of OWU, Pat Hammer, gave out the annual OWU Achievement award to artist and environmental educator, Ron Steven, aka Rogest.
OWU was the brainchild of president, Pat Hammer and started out 39 years ago in the gymnasium of a local high school. It has grown to be the Midwest’s largest consumer dive show. Since 2010 will be the 40th anniversary, plans for the “biggest party ever” are already in progress.
Keep the weekend of Feb. 19-21, 2010 open and join in a great weekend winter getaway and pick up on great travel and dive equipment specials and help Our World Underwater celebrate their 40th milestone.

What inspires me to paint

As a child I always loved to draw, but had no opportunity to have any art classes until my Senior year in high school. (the Parochial schools I went to did not believe in art classes). Taking this one class was enough to give me some insight into wanting to paint and do pastels.

I grew up given the ideals that an artist is NOT a real job, so I pursued other avenues of employment, but kept drawing and filling sketchbooks for years. While raising kids, I worked as a visual merchandiser/window dresser for large department stores and the last seven years as a floral designer.This was enough to keep the creative juices flowing through my veins, but being an artist was still the main thought in the back of my head.

In 1991, I took up the recreational sport of scuba diving. Armed with an underwater camera, I take thousands of photographs to use as reference for my drawings/ paintings.
I quit my "real job" almost two years ago now, and have dedicated my days to painting mostly underwater scenes and creatures, although I also paint landscapes from my cruise to Alaska, a trip to Glacier Natl Park and Yellowstone and my own state of Wisconsin.

When I used to paint murals for clients, they would tell me that while they were describing to me what they would want painted, I would get this "look" on my face as they were talking. I would be "painting" the mural in my head at that exact moment, and could then come in, sometimes without even a sketch, and start laying paint without hesitation.

Inspiration to me is looking at something and feeling it "trigger" inside. It is an unconscious burst of creativity that I get when I see an object, landscape or sea critter.
It is a stimulation or idea that encourages me to do a painting.

Shark !!!

Sharks have been around for 400 million years. This is about 200 million years before dinosaurs made the scene.

Long before Peter Benchley's "Jaws" book and Steven Spielbergs film adaptation, people have had a fear of sharks. I can see why the fear is there............stories have been cultivated for hundreds of years about "man-eating" sharks. Yes, sharks can be dangerous and yes, they do kill, but they are NOT the man-eating killing machines that they have been made out to be. The oceans are theirs and any killing they do is for their own survival. Any attacks that are on humans are merely by mistaken identity or that they were feeling threatened.

When I dive with sharks, I see nothing but a beautiful, graceful animal. I am working on a series of small paintings dedicated to the sharks I have dove with. I hope that through these paintings, you can overlook your fears and see the beauty that I see through my diving mask.

Gray Reef Shark, 12"x12" Oil painting, $140.00. To purchase, email me at dvrbon@wi.rr.com

http://www.bonnielynnsart.com

Palette knife Queen Angelfish

While working on a new 12"x12" painting on Thursday of a Queen Angelfish, I had one of my larger bristle brushes between my teeth sideways. The brush was loaded with beautiful bright cadmium yellow oil paint. As Murphy's law would have it, I dropped the brush right smack dab onto my nearly finished painting. Instead of brushing out the blob of paint and risking smearing it around, I took a small palette knife and tried to lift it off. In the process, it made a very cool mark on the fish. Even though it would mean changing the order of how I had originally painted it, I decided to keep going with it and see what would happen. I ended up re-working the whole painting and am actually ok with the results.

I wish I had had time to take a photo of the first version before the brush fell on it so that you could see the comparison.

Queen Angelfish, 12"x12" oil painting, $140.00, http://www.bonnielynnsart.com/OceanColorsNewestPaintings.html To purchase, email me at dvrbon@wi.rr.com

Challenger, American Eagle

I had the subject of my blog and my underwater art all set, and then someone sent me this wonderful video about a bald eagle named Challenger (in honor of the lost space crew and shuttle). I wanted to share this video with you.

Challenger was blown out of a nest in Louisiana in the late 1980's and was hand raised. He has been declared "non-releasable" by federal wildlife authories, because he is "human imprinted". The American Eagle Foundation has trained him to perform educational free-flight demonstrations at high profile events.

Challenger has learned to free-fly into stadiums, arenas and ballrooms at the playing of the Star Spangled Banner.
He has met 4 US presidents and his life story is told in a children's storybook titled, "Challenger, America's Favorite Eagle."

When I watched the video of Challenger flying and listened to the song, I welled up with so much pride for our United States that I cried through the whole thing.

I will let you play it for yourself. Challenger

The Mermaid Chair

No, this isn't the romantically passionate story written by Susan Monk Kidd. This is about a chair that I painted for the Deerpath Art League silent auction benefit of painted, embellished or altered chairs. The Deerpath Art League is a not for profit organization committed to raising appreciation and awareness of the arts in the community. This year's benefit will help raise money for the Young Artist Enrichment Program which brings awareness, education and art mentoring to elementary through high schools students.

This chair is intended for a little girl who has a love for the ocean and the fantasy of mermaids.

A mermaid is a mythological sea creature that is half woman/ half aquatic creature (fish, dolphin, ie.). The word is a compound of mere, the word for sea and maid, which has retained is original sense. (Wikipedia).

Greek mythology says that mermaids had sweet voices and their songs were heard by mariners who were lured into grounding their boats on the rocks and drowned. Mermaids were frequently seen sitting on rocks with a mirror and combing their long hair. Mermaids could foretell the future, give supernatural powers to human beings, or fall in love with humans and then entice their mortal lovers to follow them beneath the sea.

But then there is the story of The Little Mermaid, written by Hans Christian Andersen in the 1800's, and made into a Disney movie. The little mermaid, Aerial, lived in a crystal palace with her father, the King, beneath the sea. She has a fascination with her grandmother's stories about the world above the sea. On her fifteenth birthday she is given permission to rise above the surface of the sea for a peek at a world unknown to her. While exploring, she sees a ship on which a young handsome prince is celebrating his birthday. Without warning, the ship has an accident and on sinking, Aerial saves the young prince from drowning. Aerial falls in love with the prince and must make a choice to stay in the sea or give up her immortality and live on land with her beloved prince.