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Siren Song

Siren Song celebrates female beauty and sensuality in painting and sculpture, while adhering to the blue laws that prohibit nudity in publicly displayed art. Three large triptychs depict mermaids performing music, song, and dance, like updated versions of classical muses. Each canvas is a full-length portrait of an idealized woman with an angelic face, who swims in a sea of bright aquamarine reminiscent of tropical waters. Her tail shimmers in metallic colors. Three painted papier-mâché mermaids strung from fishing line appear to swim in thin air.

The sirens are very sexy, but, unlike their namesakes in Greek mythology who drew sailors to their deaths with their irresistible song, they are playful and joyous rather than dangerous. The performers revel in their own element for the love of it:

I especially like the contented, wise, and playful look on the faces of the mermaids. At least that's how they look to me. As if they are saying, yes, this is as good as it looks; it's a wonderful way to live.    -- Jan Sharrow

The mermaid form embodies the paradox of a society that is at once obsessed with and repelled by displays of human sexuality. The fish tail, which was grafted on to the sirens of myth, dispenses with the most troubling part of the female anatomy, and, as a light jab at our Puritanical mores, the papier-mâché mermaids sport removable bra tops, while the figures in the paintings artfully hide nipples behind musical instruments, hands, fins, and lots and lots of Lady Godiva hair.

The Blue Note Trio

This mermaid band might show up in an intimate nightclub or jazz venue—all acoustic, of course, because electricity and water don’t mix. The blue in the title refers to the hint of nudity rather than sadness, as well as the ocean environment where they play. The Naples Yellow and Sashay Red of the instruments were inspired by the wall colors at Zuzu.

Fin Dancers

The Fin Dancers are a play on erotic fan dancers who artfully conceal their nudity behind ostrich plume fans. The fin dancers look as if they have squeezed a pair of muscular legs in their mermaid tails, and they strike poses that evoke flamenco, fandango, and little bit of belly dance. The waving red sea fans echo the colors of the musical instruments of the Blue Note Trio, and, when viewed in a series, they flow together.

Sweet Soul Sirens

All acoustic, like the Blue Note Trio, the Sweet Soul Sirens draw their powerful voices and hands from opera stars like Leontyne Price and Jessye Norman, their sensitivity from from Billie Holiday, their metallic fish tails from the sequined gowns of the Supremes, and idyllic beauty from Iman and Beyonce.

The 3-Desires

The 3-Desires is a trio of floating papier-mache sculptures that accompany their canvas counterparts. Suspended from fishing line, they swim in a sea of air. These voluptuous beauties sport bathing suit tops in public, but prefer their natural state. Just unfasten their ties to set them free.

Edith Maxwell designed and constructed their tops from West African fabrics. West Africa is the home of Mami Wata, the sea goddess who is a melding of European mermaids displayed on the mastheads of trading vessels, traditional African fish and serpent deities, and Indian snake charming goddesses. The culture of Mami Wata has spread and morphed throughout Africa, Brazil, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. The Fowler Museum at UCLA had a fabulous exhibit of Mami Wata in art and culture in the spring and summer of 2008.