Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Floating Mermaid by Ann Morrell

I probably went "overboard" on using my embellishments but had lots of fun using my hand dyed yarns, my watercolor crayons, and my Embellisher. I was also able to use some of my fancy stitches on my sewing machine. (I used a lot of glitter.....which does cause a bad reflection in flash on camera....sorry about that.)



When I read the challenge, I instantly saw a mermaid taking a nap, wrapped in seaweed, as she is being rocked to sleep by two sea turtles. I tried to use the background fabric stitching to also show movement as well as the seaweed wrapped around the mermaid being pulled by the waves. I also tried to twist the mermaid's body to show the pull of the waves.

8 comments:

Art by Rhoda Forbes said...

Fantastic Ann. There is great movement in the piece. Gentle movement.
The embellishent is fab too, something that I need to pay more attention to!

Joni said...

Rhoda,

Your mermaid is awesome! I love the sweet restful look on her face, must be having nice dreams. The way the seaweed swirls around her adds alot of movement. The embellishment really works well too. Great job, Joni

Roberta Ranney said...

Hi Ann - this is a WOW piece. Love the rich colors, the complexity added by all the yarn and thread. I'm not a fan of too much embellishment but yours is just right because it all relates together to tell the story. Can't see a thing I'd change.

Roberta

brendaj said...

Hi Ann,
This is a really great piece with lots of movement, not to mention a lot going on! Great job.
Brenda

Jan said...

I, too, love the gentle movement of the seaweed around the mermaid. What great colors and a great idea!

Jan

Carole said...

Ditto to the above comments. A great job, if I look long enough I fear I too, will be rocked to sleep.
A very gentle piece.
Carole

Cynthia Ann Morgan said...

Hi Ann, This is wonderful! All the embellishments contribute to the movement and composition...great job on the challenge.

I only have one comment...and maybe it's just the photo, but there doesn't seem to be alot of contrast between the tail flipper and the background so it doesn't read as part of the mermaid tail.

I love the body position of the mermaid, especially her arms swaying with the water. It's just lovely to look at and very evocative of peacefulness.

What size is it? This would be great to enter into a show somewhere.
Cynthia

anna k. said...

Excellent work. I do like this piece, it definitely suggests the underwater sway of the current experienced when scuba diving.
I love looking at this piece.