Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Vanora - my sorrowful selkie girl.

My heart is tied to the sea, it's always held a powerful sway over me, a fascination with its wild and changeable nature. The sea can rage with a force to make any land living creature fearful, or sooth and envelope you like a warm caress. It is cruel and unrelenting, yet nourishing and life giving, a beautiful balance indeed! It is little surprise that there is so much mythology and legend concerning the ocean and its mysterious inhabitants, we have explored such a tiny fragment of the worlds predominant surface! 


 From as long as I can remember we have lived by the coast, the region I grew up in and still live in today is a small peninsular almost entirely surrounded by water, its a strongly celtic county with its roots steeped in old traditions and folklore, most of which are tales of our mysterious shores.

Mermaids are well known mythical beings, with stories and art works depicting them worldwide, Selkies however - you may not of heard of.
In their natural form Selkies may appear as seals, but these creatures had the ability to shed their coat of fur and emerge from the waters in human form, to dance, or console the lonely hearts of women.
Selkies unlike merfolk were deemed to be gentle, playful folk - a good omen to fishermen, and so legends tell, if a man were able to steal a selkie womans abandoned furs, she would be tied to the land and would meekly abide his will, and become his wife.
 Naturally such tales are fraught with sorrow and bitter sweet love and perhaps its becasue of these tales that I have grown up with that when I came to create my own selkie girl I connected so deeply with her. She is a little mirror, like the glassy surface of a calm sea, reflecting its peace, its sorrow, its love.






 Vanora and her seal pup will be available this Friday at the Enchanted Toybox via a two hour auction
For more of her photographs - please do visit my gallery or facebook page xx

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