Mermaid Garden — Artist Statement

She is both earth and tide. She gathers what is left behind, what is whole and what is broken; takes it home and makes it bloom.

Every seashell has a story. Hold one up to your ear sometime and let it whisper to you. When I pick up a seashell, like Ariel with her collection of human things, I can’t help but admire it and want to add it to my own. But I’m not a traditional beachcomber. Everything I use is never live-harvested, but ethically sourced through reputable dealers or collected by these hands along the shores of Atlantic Dunes in Delray Beach, Florida — where my inspiration truly bloomed and became something else.

Growing up landlocked in Kanab, Utah, my materials were limited. But in Florida, my ideas took on a life of their own. I discovered shells so small they felt like secrets — perfect rose petals. Slipper shells arranged together became plumeria. Jagged clam shells formed irises so natural they took my breath away. It felt as though abandoned art supplies were scattered along the shore, waiting. So I collected. And kept. And began to create.

Eventually, life pulled me back to landlocked Utah. Sitting in a cold basement studio that winter, those shells seemed to whisper with the ocean still inside them. By then, I was carrying more life experience than I had language for. Words would not come. But there was something I had long loved and studied deeply — the language of flowers.

A mermaid garden emerged. Blooms formed from the sea. Each one began to beckon — not to tell its own story, but to help tell mine. My journey found its voice through seashell flowers.

While these works are born from lived experience, they are not depictions of trauma itself, but of transformation — what remains, what regrows, and what finds new language. Works range from intimate sculptural florals to larger assemblages incorporating mirrors, found objects, and natural forms.

Materials & Process

Each piece in the Mermaid Garden is hand-constructed from ethically sourced seashells, natural elements, and mixed media. No live materials are harvested. Flowers are built petal by petal — often requiring dozens of shells per bloom — and assembled intuitively rather than from pattern or mold. The process is slow, tactile, and meditative, mirroring the emotional excavation each piece represents.

I am healing through cultivating my Mermaid Garden. Perhaps the messages these works contain can help others along their journeys — or help them see the beauty in what was once considered an empty shell.

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