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Description
Watercolour and ink

An artwork I did for my little sister who wants to be a marine biologist (she's probably out there somewhere cringing over my very anatomically incorrect fish)

Sedna is the Inuit goddess of the sea and marine animals. She is also known as the Mother of the Sea or the Mistress of the Sea, Arnaqquassaaq (some places in Greenland) [1] and Nuliajuk (Keewatin Northern Territories, Canada) [2]

There exist many versions of her story, but in the one, I’m most familiar with, Sedna is a beautiful young Inuit woman who rejects marriage proposals from all the hunters in the village. Her father is annoyed with this and urges her to find a husband soon. One day an unknown stranger appears who promises to give Sedna plenty of food and fur for clothes and blankets, and Sedna agrees to marry him. After they wed, the strange hunter takes her on a long boat journey to his island and reveales himself to be a bird dressed as a man. Sedna is furious, but she is trapped on his island and cannot return home. One day when her father comes to visit, he sees how unhappy his daughter is, and that they have both been lied to. In anger, he kills the birdman and gets Sedna and himself into his kayak and sets off home. But the birdman’s friends discover what they had done and with their wings, they hurl up a terrible storm. Terryfied of drowning, Sedna's father throws Sedna overboard to keep his kayak from sinking. He thinks this will stop the birds from flapping their wings, but it does not. Sedna fights to get back into the kayak. She grabs the edge of it and holds on tight. Fearing this will tip the kayak over, her father cuts off Sedna’s fingers one by one and she sinks into the sea. But from her fingers, different sea creatures are born.

Sedna now dwells at the bottom of the sea as a powerful sea goddess. Whenever the sea becomes harsh and unruly and food is scarce, a Shaman will transform himself into a fish and travel to the bottom of the sea to comb Sedna’s hair and put it into braids. This soothes her anger. Perhaps this is because Sedna lost her fingers, that she likes to have someone else braid her hair for her. When she is happy again, she allows her animals to make themselves available to hunters. [3]

This should get us all in the spirit for #MerMay

Follow me on instagram: www.instagram.com/saxtorphillu…
COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN!: www.deviantart.com/saxtorphart…
My website: www.saxtorphillustration.com/

[1] www.crystalinks.com/inuitcreat…

[2] www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca…

[3] Moore, Charles. 1986. Keeveeok, Awake! Edmonton: Ring House Gallery. p. 9–10.

Description
Watercolour and ink

An artwork I did for my little sister who wants to be a marine biologist (she's probably out there somewhere cringing over my very anatomically incorrect fish)

Sedna is the Inuit goddess of the sea and marine animals. She is also known as the Mother of the Sea or the Mistress of the Sea, Arnaqquassaaq (some places in Greenland) [1] and Nuliajuk (Keewatin Northern Territories, Canada) [2]

There exist many versions of her story, but in the one, I’m most familiar with, Sedna is a beautiful young Inuit woman who rejects marriage proposals from all the hunters in the village. Her father is annoyed with this and urges her to find a husband soon. One day an unknown stranger appears who promises to give Sedna plenty of food and fur for clothes and blankets, and Sedna agrees to marry him. After they wed, the strange hunter takes her on a long boat journey to his island and reveales himself to be a bird dressed as a man. Sedna is furious, but she is trapped on his island and cannot return home. One day when her father comes to visit, he sees how unhappy his daughter is, and that they have both been lied to. In anger, he kills the birdman and gets Sedna and himself into his kayak and sets off home. But the birdman’s friends discover what they had done and with their wings, they hurl up a terrible storm. Terryfied of drowning, Sedna's father throws Sedna overboard to keep his kayak from sinking. He thinks this will stop the birds from flapping their wings, but it does not. Sedna fights to get back into the kayak. She grabs the edge of it and holds on tight. Fearing this will tip the kayak over, her father cuts off Sedna’s fingers one by one and she sinks into the sea. But from her fingers, different sea creatures are born.

Sedna now dwells at the bottom of the sea as a powerful sea goddess. Whenever the sea becomes harsh and unruly and food is scarce, a Shaman will transform himself into a fish and travel to the bottom of the sea to comb Sedna’s hair and put it into braids. This soothes her anger. Perhaps this is because Sedna lost her fingers, that she likes to have someone else braid her hair for her. When she is happy again, she allows her animals to make themselves available to hunters. [3]

This should get us all in the spirit for #MerMay

Follow me on instagram: www.instagram.com/saxtorphillu…
COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN!: www.deviantart.com/saxtorphart…
My website: www.saxtorphillustration.com/

[1] www.crystalinks.com/inuitcreat…

[2] www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca…

[3] Moore, Charles. 1986. Keeveeok, Awake! Edmonton: Ring House Gallery. p. 9–10.