Artist Caroline Waloski’s “Flights of Fancy”

I talk to Caroline below, about fishy ladies and Siren’s Song (which she also runs and directs, and which features mermaid art from a variety of sea-loving artists), but first, check out her own magical creations:

So what is the Siren’s Song Gallery?
I created the Sirens’ Song Gallery to lure folks into discovering the arts. The gallery is located in a historic maritime village. One can’t ignore the sea, bays, rivers and streams surrounding the area. It is natural for an artist to record what is seen, but there is more than meets the eye. Many local galleries feature paintings of the sea, but I thought I’d feature what was less obvious: the mysteries of the depth in spirit and psyche. After thousand of years evolving we humans are still connected to the sea. The waters of the earth can be benevolent or malevolent. The tides and the moon have a strong pull on our lives, and emotions, and the Mermaid Goddess is still there as intermediary. From ancient Mesopotamia until today she is our protectress. The mission of the Sirens’ Song Gallery is to focus on the beauty and power of this ancient deity, and her relevance in sustaining and preserving our world.

What kinds of artists have you featured?
The gallery has exhibited mid-career and established artists from the around the world, all of them focusing on water and sea themes. Water, the sea, and our natural environment has been the major focus of all art exhibited at the Sirens’ Song. The very first exhibit in 2006 was titled “Creatures of the Deep & the Shallows.” Artists from the Manhattan Graphics Center exhibited both fact and fantasy images with mermaids and other sea life bestiary. “Water Works,” a solo exhibit in 2008, featured limited-edition reduction linocuts, etchings, and collages by Cynthia Back focusing on the beauty, magic, patterns, and texture of our waterways and how they stay recorded in our memory. “Ebb & Flow” in 2011 featuring Shelly Haven and Cynthia Back dealt with large and small waterways and what possibly lies under the surface, and remains forever in our memory and fixed in time.

As artist in residence I have begun to focus on exhibiting my own work. The women’s issues that have always been the focus of my art have taken on a mythological approach using the Mermaid as Muse, the giver and protector of all life on earth, the ancient Goddess presiding over an “Amniotic Sea.” It is from prehistoric primeval seas that all life emerged. We are the evolved creation of those primeval cells. We are made up of water, depend upon it to sustain life, and the pull of the tides still moves and controls us. Our children in embryonic fish-like state are carried in a salty pool inside our female bodies until birth.

After thousands of years this Goddess of the sea is still very much an intermediary between us and the ocean’s force. Spirits and demons have always been present in my work, but since moving to this historic maritime village the Sea Goddess or Mermaid has insinuated herself as the dominate spirit. My new work in “Flights of Fancy” contains some book arts in the form of Ditty Boxes. Sailors in their long sea voyages during the whaling era often worked on art projects to pass the hours, and sometimes years on board ship. Mermaids were a favorite subject. These scrimshaw inspired objet d’art focus on the sirens of mythology, and life givers. “The Odyssey” a carved surface of the egg shaped box shows a Siren perched on a rock while 2 other Sirens float in the air. Upon opening the box a small imperiled boat is revealed. “The Beginning” is a doll shaped stacking box. The outer box is a Mermaid in her element. The inner box reveals a human swimmer with flippers, the final inner 3rd box reveals a tiny MerBaby. I am happy with where this series is going. As an etcher I have always worked in 2 dimensional layered work, now I am working in 3D. This gives me the opportunity to reveal only one layer at a time. Just like the mystery of the sea.

Can you tell me about your own background? Have mermaids always inspired you?
After years of living in New York City, born in Brooklyn near the waterfront, I moved to Long Island in 2005. But I was always surrounded by water, wherever I lived. Prior to moving to Greenport I lived and had my art studio in Harlem’s Hamilton Heights area. Situated between the Hudson and Harlem Rivers in a house built above underground streams I always felt the protection of water spirits. I was familiar with Long Island’s East End because my parents, and extended family always vacationed there. My parents were first generation Americans, their parents immigrating from Warsaw. The symbol of Warsaw just happens to be a mermaid. Greenport was a natural choice because it is a historic maritime village with a deep water harbor. Whaling and rum running are part of the local history, as is aquaculture and agriculture. My best days as a child were at the beach, swimming, fishing, collecting sea shells and sea glass, boating, or day dreaming about Mermaids. I haven’t changed much; the sea still preoccupies my thoughts and mesmerizes me.