Don’t Lose Your Skin

A selkie, poised mid transformation.

“Don’t lose your skin” I whisper to her, hoping she takes my warning.
There are many who’d swoop in and snatch her seal skin to bind her to themselves, but the selkie is wild and does not belong to anyone. The selkie will always find her skin again, and the selkie will always return to the cold salt water of home.

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I’ve loved the myth of the Selkie for as long as I can remember. As a child I watched The Secret of Roan Inish on repeat, and read through every book I could find. This myth of seals that can shapeshift and shed their silky skin to become human, who often get coerced into marrying a human, but never give up the search for that piece of themselves that will allow them to return home. This story nestled itself in me like a little seed, my own bit of wildness and ocean that I can return to.

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Watercolour, pencil crayon, and ink on cold press watercolour paper.

8×12″ (9.5×13.5 framed with glass)