Mermaids and Madonnas

I love and collect mermaids and madonnas. I never grow tired of painting them, dreaming them, gathering them in. I’m thinking about them this morning because I’ve agreed to do a collaborative mermaid book swap with the amazing Bee Shay who I first met at Artfest a few weeks ago. She is a master organizer and thinker-up of cool projects for artists to participate in. As an example, she passed out some 250 imprinted dog tags at Artfest and asked the artists who received them to decorate them, alter them, use them in a new piece of art, and then to send her a photo file of the results. She will no doubt compile the photos into a book, website, or larger art project that will be thought provoking and strange. So that is Bee - inventive and original.

I called her a guru but she corrected me to say she was just a mermaid out of water. That pretty well describes most of the artists I know. They go through life looking from a different perspective, feeling things differently and more deeply. They are also often moody, shy, flamboyant and odd.

Anyway, I started this post to introduce you to a family friend, Gene Flores - master printmaker, painter and teacher. I met Gene through my daughter’s best friend who has been like one of my own family since childhood. He teaches printmaking and shows his etchings and engravings in Portland at the Print Arts Northwest Gallery. The engraving of the Sirena card is one of my favorites from his Loteria deck. Much like the Tarot deck, the cards of this popular game in Mexico are archetypal figures that have been interpreted by various artists.

As I look at Gene’s interpretation I am reminded of something I was told once about all art being self-portraits. This image is strong, assertive, confident and outgoing, just like Gene.

The next image is of an oil painting on tin mounted on wood and is also Gene’s work. It was done in collaboration with another artist named David Andersen; their process was to trade the painting back and forth in a dialogue (or struggle) as they worked out the composition and meaning together. I love the dualism, the nasty old red devil and the snakes which Gene said were hisses in the ears of the people from the bad one.


Aren’t the primary colors powerful? When I look at this I feel like I am in one of the dusty old sanctuaries in Mexico smelling the wax of burning candles and surrounded by pilgrims and tuberoses. Be sure to visit Gene’s website and enjoy his colossal imagination yourself.