Bearded & Shucked
1st Annual Mermaid Parade in the Desert
Joshua Tree, CA 2016
Coney Island is a good 2,600 miles from Joshua
Tree, California, geographically and viscerally.
But it’s such an enduring symbol of Americana
that for some, it’s home no matter where they
live.
Mention Brooklyn’s seaside amusement parks and
the immediacy of the visual reference is like a
bust in the chops with a cotton candy fist from
a laughing, bare-bosomed, lipsticked lady
covered in glitter and from the sea. Its
Mermaid Parade invites the outlandishly dressed
to celebrate themselves along the boardwalk
with thousands of cheering onlookers and the
joy of tradition.
So when a fairy tale seemed to spill off its
pages and through the plains of Joshua Tree on
the very day of that Coney Island tradition—led
by a bunny rabbit drinking a Bud Light and an
8-foot-tall, bewitching mermaid caricature in
heels—it couldn’t be a coincidence. Not with
all those other mermaids surrounding them.
Sparkling in the golden desert sunset and mov-
ing along a narrow gravel road that stretches
across the valley of Joshua trees and to a bar,
they marched.
This is the "magic hour". Every photo of the
landscape is a cliché that has made it onto a
postcard, phone book or calendar. “Happy
Mermaid Parade!” someone shouted kindly to a
family sealed from the heat inside their pass-
ing black Ford Focus, windows rolled up.
The reality of this surreality is that the
force of shelled crowns, ribbon and netting
emerged from the house belonging to artist
Aaron Sheppard. The former Las Vegas resi-
dent—who’s been to Coney Island’s parade
12 times—collaborated with artist Erin
Stellmon, who is equally acquainted with
the parade and park; she even placed first
in a Coney Island arm wrestling competition
once. Unable to meet up this year at Coney
Island, the longtime compadres living on
opposite sides of the country contacted
friends, planned an informal reunion,
Bearded & Shucked, and paid homage.
There are things in life you never antici-
pate, and one of them is Las Vegas artist
JW Caldwell wearing a bunny suit. History,
kinship and tradition led to this walk
through the desert. Conversations picked
up where they left off hours, days, weeks,
months and years before. Approaching town
and tar, the undulating rhythms from the
cars passing on Twentynine Palms Highway
breathed like an ocean, a sea from whence
these Mermaids came—by car from Las Vegas
and elsewhere.
It’s not about wanting to or being able to
re-create the Coney Island parade, Sheppard
says. It’s about having like-minded friends;
hanging out before, after and during the
actual event; the creating, the preparing,
the logistics; and the communal aspect.
-Kristen Peterson
Mermaids in the Desert Give Love to Coney Island
Las Vegas Weekly, June 22, 2016
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