From the archives: A mermaid’s tale — four friends made sculpture for art’s sake

This story was originally published on December 8, 2000 in the Sun-Times and written by Nancy Moffett.

The mystery mermaid on the Burnham Park lakefront at 39th Street was created 14 years ago, Chicago sculptor Roman Villarreal said Thursday.

“We took a walk on the lakefront one day, and we came on that one spot,” Villarreal said of his work with three other artists. “We said, ‘This would be a beautiful place to do a series of sculptures for the next 10 years.’ “

His daughter was the model.

“It was just sunbathing to me,” said Melinda Garcia-Villarreal, who played a bikini-clad “Ariel” for her father and three of his artist friends when she was 15.

They made up a myth about the mermaid.

“We wanted people to think that she snuck in from the sea, lay down and went to sleep and became petrified,” Villarreal said. “We were doing guerrilla art for the sake of doing art.”

One Friday night after the mermaid was finished, the artists got together.

“We waited for the full moon. We wanted to dedicate her to the full moon,” Villarreal said.

The group planned to meet every year to do a new piece. But as waves pitted the stone, the vision also dissolved; the artists floated off in different directions.

So the Moon’s Mermaid became a mystery.

“Only the people who walked the lakefront even knew the mermaid was there,” Villarreal said.

Word did get around some, among “true South Siders,” he said, and “people would take friends of friends” to see it.

When Garcia-Villarreal saw the mermaid’s picture in the Chicago Sun-Times Wednesday, she called to reveal its origin. Her father said “it took us 10 days to do the piece.” She remembers it taking all summer.

Villarreal said no one bothered them. “We kept it kind of quiet,” he said. “We didn’t have permission. We would get there early in the morning.”

They called the work Sirena, mermaid in Spanish.

Villarreal said a group of taggers heard through the art grapevine about the work. “They came and did an elaborate spray painting” higher up on the rocks, Villarreal said. That work has washed away.

But the stone mermaid will become a permanent part of the revetment, said Drew Becher, Chicago Park District chief of staff.

“I’ve been trying to do something permanent for a long time,” Villarreal said.

The mermaid band never returned to create Neptune or his daughters, as they had envisioned. Villarreal and the others, Fred Arroyo, Edfu Kingigna and Jose Moreno, went on to different things. Moreno is now a well-known sculptor in Mexico, Villarreal said.

Villarreal continued his art projects. He teaches “urban sculpture” to children, has taught at Gallery 37 and just had a show at the South Shore Cultural Center.

Now that his mermaid’s tale has surfaced, “I’m really proud that somebody finally found her,” Villarreal said.

Fourteen years ago, artists Jose Moreno (from left), Roman Villarreal, Edfu Kingigna and Fred Arroyo created a mermaid at 39th Street and the lakefront. It was the first in what was to be a series of sculptures. Mystery mermaid sculptor Roman Villarreal was happy to see his work will be a permanent part of the South Side lakeshore.