The Faceless Mermaid

Muskegon, Michigan is home to Hemisphere Design Works (HDW) – the world’s largest kayak manufacturer. The Muskegon Lakeshore Art Festival was honored to have HDW donate Sun Dolphin kayaks for a public sculpture project. We worked with nine Michigan artists and had them create a rendering of their sculpture that incorporated the kayak. Once the designs were approved, the artists got their supplies and created their works of art.

One artist took on a three dimensional mermaid sculpture “riding” in the kayak. The rendering was magnificent but the actual piece had a small flaw… the mermaid kept losing her face! Specifically, any time the wind blew and it blows a lot along the lakeshore of Muskegon, MI. One day a man came into our office bearing the mermaid face. He handed it to an intern and mentioned that he had found it in the bushes nearby and that we might want to get the face back on the sculpture. The gentleman left and the intern casually brought the face to the art festival director and said some guy just brought this in. When asked who the guy might be, the intern replied with his name, in this moment it was realized that it was the CEO of Hemisphere Design Works. The major sponsor and donor of all the kayaks was the “guy” that found the face. Needless to say the artist was called and the face re-attached. Moral of the story, don’t lose face with the guy that brings you a lost face.