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While working on the Sacred Space spread, I felt an overwhelming need to create a mermaid. The mermaid will be integrated into another of my works in progress, which--and this will probably not amaze you in the least--is a tower shrine. There exists a lot of folklore about mermaids, some of it positive, some less so. Much of the folklore speaks of mermaids as innocents led by love to a mortal to leave their home and live outside their element. I could tell you a story that spans decades, no, aeons, and involves two people and a long journey and a ruined church tower, but I think you'll get my drift, even without the details.
This is a spread I completed in Jill's "Sacred Spaces" travelling journal. The photo shows the ruined tower of St. Helen's Old Church on the Isle of Wight. When I was a girl, the tower was still open to the elements. I used to climb up the inside of the wall to sit on a window ledge on the sea-side of the tower and either read or gaze out across the water. So this particular space was "sacred" both by design and by usage.As always, click to enlarge the image.The tower has since been stabilised and closed off and integrated into a "new and improved" seafront. It no longer looks as wild and inviting as it once did, but then again, I'm no longer there, so it doesn't need to, does it?The colors and journaling style reflect the early teenage me who used to clamber up walls, cliffs, trees, and more or less anything else that offered three-point contact hand- and footholds.
One of the women I art with (Claire) has the following quotation on her blog: "There is an Indian proverb that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, an emotional, a mental, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room everyday, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person." (Rumer Godden, 1907 - 1998) This quotation prompted the October "Spirit House" challenge. 
Here are two of the facets of the Spirit House I made for Jill. Spirit is on the upper left and body on the right. (Remember, you can click on any image to enlarge it.)
Claire's blog
http://spirited-soul.blogspot.com/
While working on the Sacred Space spread, I felt an overwhelming need to create a mermaid. The mermaid will be integrated into another of my works in progress, which--and this will probably not amaze you in the least--is a tower shrine. 
