Mermaids...

"Norfolk attorney and civic booster Pete Decker introduced Mermaids on Parade at a breakfast meeting with 300 business and civic leaders on November 30, 1999. He invited them to join the campaign to benefit the arts, promising that Spring 2000 would see 'the most spectacular gathering of mermaids ever seen in the United States.' Sculptures would be fashioned after the logo adopted by Norfolk a year before-a free-spirited, young mermaid. Business and community leaders from neighborhoods  throughout Norfolk and beyond "adopted" mermaids at $2,000 apiece. When completed, each 10-foot by 4-foot hollow fiberglass sculpture is relatively light in weight (60-70 pounds) and offers artists plenty of options for painting, molding, drilling, or otherwise affixing decorations on them."
What a wonderful concept. Needless to say...I am obsessed. I have spent hours, days, months hunting these ladies down in order to photograph them. Not an easy task. Some are missing..because they have been stolen, placed in storage or auctioned off. Some are less than pretty...because they have been vandalized, destroyed or defaced. Some succumb to wind, weather, and waves. Regardless....I love them...and what they symbolize. And I have found many of them....a fact that I am endlessly proud of. I want to share some of my favorites with you.

There are many more...just waiting to be discovered. (and this is a small sampling of those I have already found.) I hope that these precious and beautiful ladies bring you the same happiness that they have given me.
Enjoy!