Selkies

I am a big fan of Welsh, Scottish and Irish fairy tales. The selkie myths probably being some of my favorites. A simple description is that selkies are seals, that for a short time, can shed their skins and take human form. The myths often involve a fisherman finding or stealing the skin of a selkie while she is human and then marrying her. But, eventually she finds her skin and her nature draws her back to the sea. I've given my daughter several books on the myth over the years. They are are some of her favorite stories, still.

Last summer, I was messing around with my GoPro camera and taking shots of my daughter jumping off of the diving board and into the pool. This illustration combines a pic I took of her with the selkie myth. I've had it bouncing around in my head for a couple of weeks and finally put it to paper last night.

As a side note on selkies, they can be found in two movies that I know of. One, The Secret of Roan Inish and two, Song of the Sea, an incredibly well animated film by the same people that did The Secret of Kells (also a great film).