The Seafarer’s Guide to Mermaids

Type of Work: Figure Drawing, Calligraphy
Fall 2016

From 1000 BC to the modern day, mermaids have appeared in the folklore of cultures across the globe, ranging from the Near East to Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Across all cultures and times, mermaids have shared an almost singular set of characteristics: they have the head and torso of a human woman and the tail of a simple fish, and they are almost always beautiful and alluring.

One modern book that pushes the boundaries of this visual standard is Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You by Tony DiTerlizzi. This book is a fictitious field guide for encountering mythical creatures in the wild, including illustrations and descriptions of thirty-one creatures. The Field Guide’s chapter on mermaids states that—unlike the universal standard described above—mermaids exist in many subspecies and differ widely in appearance, resembling the fish in the waters where they live, and they are not always beautiful.

I was inspired by the idea that mermaids could have geographic-specific subspecies, not all of which are alluring. I took this idea and created my own “Seafarer’s Guide to Mermaids,” a looseleaf folio featuring images and descriptions for six potential subspecies. All six mermaids have physical features related to the fish in the waters they inhabit. For each rendering, I studied the fish and plant life indigenous to each maid’s geographic home and include a description of the habitats and distinctive features of each creature.