Mermaid Me

click to enlarge

I went fishing in my vast cyber ocean and hooked Mermaid Me. It is my choice fillet for the www.illustrationfriday.com mermaid theme. Self portraits are so much fun to do. I think we all have so many sides (or fins) to ourselves.  I don't exactly swim like a mermaid.  But my love of the ocean goes back to when I was 5 years old and saw it for the first time.  I grew up far from any ocean on a boring farm in Wisconsin.  Well, now I think of it as a scenic area of rolling hills and bountiful crops.  But back then it was one dull day after another.  Until our first trip to Florida.  Magic!  It has been a love affair ever since. 

 I've done some serious shelling on Sanibel Island.  Put my tanned paws in the silky sands of Siesta Key.  Sat with Sea turtles on the black sand of the Big Island.  Snorkeled with the fishes in Belize.  And most importantly boogie boarded in Dominical, Costa Rica.  I definitely have a little bit of mermaid in me.  Even though I often sport a life jacket.  A little girl pointed at me after bike riding along the lake this Summer.  I was still wearing my helmet.   She pointed and said to her Mom, "Safety Girl"  Yep.  That's me.

Safety mermaid artist girl to the rescue.