This was made by layering and digitally manipulating several seaside vacation photographs with a scan of one of my collagraph etching plates.

“I come to the sea to listen to ancient rhythms and the primordial voice. I come because it is exquisite medicine. I come because in another life I was a mermaid or a Selkie, diving beneath the dark surface of the cold water to find new worlds waiting.” Christine Valtner Paintner

The myth of St. Muirgen, the Mermaid Saint, is based on the pre-christian Celtic myth of LiBan.The name Muirgen means “of the sea.”