New creation joins Mermaid Tail Trail
Ocala artist Linda Reitz created “Celestial” as part of the legacy project that honors the history of Weeki Wachee Springs.
She is 80 pounds of fiberglass, soon to be anchored in place by 1,000 pounds of concrete. She’s 6 feet, 8 inches tall. Her scales include shades of blue, teal, purple and lavender, rendered with a brush, using automotive paint.
She’s “Celestial,” also known as Scarlett, and is the creative offspring of Linda Reitz, an Ocala artist who exhibits her work at the Rainbow Springs Art in Dunnellon gallery.
“Celestial” was unveiled recently at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park but was slated to move soon to the Kayak Shack in nearby Spring Hill.
“Celestial” is one of 10 new mermaid statues that have been added to the Mermaid Tale Trail, a drivable excursion from Brooksville to Weeki Wachee, where mermaid-hunters can spot and photograph 37 mermaid statues, including the newest additions.
Longtime Ocalan Newt Perry, founder of the Perry Swim School and a fixture at the Silver Springs attraction, where he was involved in numerous movie productions, among other activities, founded the Weeki Wachee attraction, which opened in the fall of 1947.
Linda Reitz painted an 80-pound mermaid inside her house. She needed to wear a mask to ward off some of the fumes from the automobile paint. [Submitted photo]
Reitz’s design incorporates all the zodiac constellations on the rock upon which Celestial perches. And painting a larger-than-most-humans mermaid took some planning.
Reitz and her husband retrieved the mermaid by hefting the statue into their truck, then lugged her inside their house. While he went hunting, she painted the mermaid and finished before Christmas. The paint fumes were strong, and Reitz had to wear a mask.
After the mermaids were painted, a man affiliated with the project clear-coated all of them and they were stored in a warehouse for a while.
The mermaid unveiling was delayed several times because some of the original statues were carried away by hurricanes and one was damaged by a hit-and-run driver, Reitz said.
But by the end of March, everything was ready.
Reitz said the mermaid painting “was a fun project but I don’t know if I’d want to do it again.”
She explained that it was difficult painting with a brush while using automobile paint. Not only did she have to hunt for a brush that would work but the paint dried in 90 seconds.
“It was a little bit of a challenge, but I think I finally got it,” she said.
A native of New York, Reitz and her husband had a wood shop there where they made pull-toys and carousel horses from exotic woods. She exhibited a wooden unicorn at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Since moving to Florida, she has incorporated Florida’s nature life into her work with acrylics and resin art. She explores how fluid acrylics—or pour art—and resin can serve as the abstract background for realistic paintings of fish; mammals, such as horses; and fantasy creatures. She often incorporates gold leaf, crystals or glitter in her work. She may paint on traditional canvas, or decorate coasters, clocks and turntables.
She said some of the other mermaid statues at the unveiling included one that’s a hippie, one that’s a pirate and many that include sea animals. A chiropractor purchased a mermaid with a painted-on spine.
Reitz said all of the artists worked with fiberglass mermaids that were made from the same mold, which was modeled after a Weeki Wachee mermaid.
She said the people from the Kayak Shack who bought her mermaid have a daughter, Scarlett, and that’s how “Celestial” got her other name. Like the real Scarlett, “Celestial” has black hair.
Even though she has some hesitation about doing a project like this again, Reitz said she thinks it would be a great idea to do a statue trail through Dunnellon, like the horses in Ocala and the turtles in Inverness. She thinks fiberglass statues of river otters might work, but she recommends using acrylic paint.
To get a map and follow the Mermaid Tale Trail, go to floridamermaidtrail.b-cdn.net
To learn the history of Newt Perry and his family, go to ocalastyle.com/in-the-swim
The crowd awaits the unveiling of mermaid statues at Weeki Wachee State Park. [Submitted photo]
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