Stephanie's Studio

 "Moonlight Beach with Gulls," pastel, Stephanie Rose Bird, 2015                                                                               Gathering with family, being with friends and loved ones--what could be better? My in-laws are getting on in age. My mother-in-law just turned 85. I had the pleasure of celebrating her birthday with her, a bit early but still, along with the rest of the family. There is a gentleness and knowing that comes with age, at least in her case. It's very touching. I hope to get there. In addition to celebrating with her, I also spent time with my husband's father, brothers and my sisters-in-law. His older brother and our sister-in-law came all the way over from England. We had fun reconnecting. All of my children, apart from one who is working on the...

This ATC features a woman from a Botticelli painting transformed into a mermaid with two angels behind her.  While I was working on it I was transported to my childhood and began pondering my connections to mermaids, the lake and the sea.  When I was growing up I spent many hours swimming in a lake fed by freshwater springs.  I would encounter all sorts of wetland creatures as I swam, like small schools of fish, turtles and even otters.  Sometimes I would get tangled in the seaweed.  Swimming and rowing were respites from a sometimes stressful life inside the house. I always found wonder and a sense of peace from observing the tides, floating and swimming deep down towards the sandy bottom of the lake.  As I grew older my uncle introduced me to the Ifa path of the Yoruba people and that was my first time of reflecting on the diverse types of mermaids of the spiritual world.  At first he thought I was a child of Oshun, but eventually it was revealed...