Once a year I get to leave the world behind and cross over into the land of FaerieCon. I won’t return aged 100 years, it is safe to partake of food and drink, but I will see glorious wonders and frolic with friends, old and new, and my gypsy faerie family. (I am not exagerating, although I may be accused of waxing poetic.) Until you have experienced an event such as this, you will have to take my word, suspend your disbelief, and read on…

Where else can a dryad frolic with a mermaid? While djinn stroll past, and satyrs lounge, strumming a banjo? Where artists share epic feats of imagination and skill; where authors read words that transport you further away from the mundane world;  and where music can spiral around you in ethereal tendrils? 

This past weekend – we arrived Thursday, settled in, noshed on sushi… Met up with friends for laughter and libations – the uber talented artists Brigid Ashwood and Jane Star Weils, and storyteller/creative genius Mark Lewis. This night alone thrilled me no end – sharing wine and witty conversation with artists whose work I admire, very nourishing and inspiring to my creative soul…

We set up Friday morning…

Tiles, a few shrines, and my dryad sculpture reigning over all the mixed media jewels. I was thrilled to have as my neighbors – my friend Sarah of Toadstools n treestump, and Mermaid Melissa!

The iPhone picture really doesn’t do her justice – the carpet colors are overpowering the variations of sheen and hue in her – rather long – tail!

Mermaid Melissa, hailing originally from Florida has worked professionally as a marine animal trainer, pearl diver, and currently as a professional mermaid. She is charming, personable, and a self professed “kid magnet” as we witnessed through out the weekend. At FaerieCon she was representing Fae magazine, and their new publication Mermaids and Mythology magazine, for whom she writes a column. Her website is filled with stunning photos and even more breathtaking videos.  Saturday afternoon, like wild fire, a phrase rarely heard raced around the lobby: “There’s a mermaid in the pool!” Even those of us that had seen Melissa swim on Friday, joined in… how often do you get to exclaim that to others? 

And let me share Mermaid Melissa’s message here: Save the world’s oceans before all creatures become mythical!

Please check out her site. You wont regret it. Until tomorrow – when I bring you Day 2 of the “Five days of FaerieCon m.a.g.i.c…