Bearded & Shucked: Droppin' a Deuce
2nd Annual Mermaid Parade in the Desert
Joshua Tree, CA 2017
Artist Aaron Sheppard recently hosted the second
annual Bearded & Shucked Mermaid Day Parade,
in honor of the Coney Island tradition. Sheppard
(Joshua Tree) and Erin Stellmon (Baltimore), both
former Las Vegans, collaborated on last year’s first
procession through Joshua Tree, California, and
shared their memories of Coney Island and the
parade with Settlers + Nomads. Mikayla Whitmore
participated in this year’s event and contributed
this gorgeous photo essay documenting the festivities:
[CLICK HERE]
Desert rats flocked to the sand in Joshua
Tree, California, transformed into sea-loving
creatures for a day of marching on scorched
earth followed by rounds of mud wrestling and
self-reflection.
Later, long after the sun had fallen away, a
fellow mermaid glistening in the moonlight
washed off the mud caked to his body while
sitting in an inflatable pool and proclaimed,
“After a night of many answers I only am left
with questions. I’ve tasted the God’s blood.
I sipped the sweet disaronno of this land –
he put it in my cold brew. I bathed in the
sweet pool of the mermaid horde.” And with
that, the once bedazzled mermaid stood before
us a mere man, and together we shed our
personas and removed sun-baked makeup, only
left to dream about the same day, next year.
-Settlers + Nomads
Summer 2017 Exhibitions and Events
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