The Mermaids

Mermaids – Acrylic on Wood – 2004 ©dianegreen*

This was written at a time when I had moved into an apartment in the Pilsen neighborhood (Chicago) living alone and knowing no one else on the south side. I had already been working at Pilsen Little Village Mental Health Center as an art therapist for over a year, but I was suddenly in a big, empty apartment, alone and waiting for my kids to move in with me after a complicated divorce. More independent than ever, I was ready to face any hard times with the mermaids there to protect me. ~dianegreen 07/2023

March 30, 2004

Intention: Look below.

Witness: I thought I'd be painting a fish catching a worm, but my old friends, the twin mermaids, have finally appeared. They are welcoming me to my new home. Something feels very right about this new place. It's big enough for me. Maybe it’s big enough for my kids. I don’t care what anybody thinks. I surrender. I give up. I've submerged. I'm swimming with the fishes and not sleeping with the fishes as I've wished some folks were doing, if you know what I mean. I just have to stay relaxed no matter what happens. She who hears me will help me. Everything is going to be alright.

March 31, 2004

Intention: Be strong.

Witness: Well, they look like a couple of party girls. I wonder what it's like to be a mermaid. Half human, half fish. It's got to be a challenge. Can you speak to me Mermaid twins, maybe? Do you speak in unison like the twin Japanese girls in the monster movie Mothra.

Mermaids: We are here to welcome you to your new home.

I: Wow. Thank you. You've been around here a while.

Mermaids: Yes, we've been waiting for you.

I: Awesome. I've known about you.

Mermaids: How?

I: Since Mrs. Stevens heard the Mermaid’s singing.

Mermaids: So, you know, trouble comes with the territory.

I: I guess you're used to the chaos.

Mermaids: We just float through it.

I: Sounds like quite a talent.

Mermaids: Just keep swimming.

I: I have to…I’m a Gemini / Pisces rising.

April 1, 2004

Intention: Hear the mermaids singing.

Witness: I don't remember much about the novel “Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing” (by May Sarton) but I remember I identified with it. I've kept a copy of it since I was 18. I do remember Mrs. Stevens was different and I could definitely relate to that. The mermaids welcomed me home as if I have arrived at a new place I've never been before…which is true. I have a new apartment, but I'm somewhere else that's new on another plane somehow. The other day I found the name of that monster movie, the scariest one ever, that terrified me. So, when I was four years old, it made my sister laugh to see me so horrified. All these years I've told people about this Japanese BLOB movie that scared the daylights out of me when I was four years old.. I thought it was named Kowtiki with a K… But it was named Caltiki.

No one around has ever heard of it. Ever. The only person who knew about it was my sister. Well, I finally looked it up on the Internet. After Svengoolie the other night, I looked up Sivad, the ghoulish, caped host of Memphis's own TV show Fantastic Features. There was a list of the top ten movies ever shown on Fantastic Features there it was at #9 Caltiki, the scariest movie about the flesh-eating BLOB. There was even a black and white still of one of the frightening scenes in the movie. Mystery solved and it was made in Italy. It wasn’t Japanese, it was Italian.

Now if I can only figure out how my tap shoes would be tapping in my closet after I was sent to bed whenever my sister babysat for me with her best friend, Beverley.

Mermaids: Welcome home, Diane.

April 2, 2004

Intention: Relax.

Witness: The sun is shining; the sky is blue. Nice day, but chilly. I'm just so glad tomorrow is Saturday. I haven't had a day off since I don't know when. I can hardly think of anything at all to write. At least the mermaids are holding up. They got little crowns today, but I couldn't even paint much. I am exhausted, I guess. What do you think, Mermaids?

Mermaids: Take a powder, lady. You need REST.

I: I reckon so.

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*Photo of original painting updated 7/15/2023