Melusine - Mixed Media Photography on Wood - Image 2
Melusine - Mixed Media Photography on Wood - Image 3
Melusine - Mixed Media Photography on Wood - Image 4

Melusine – Mixed Media Photography on Wood

Melusine by Robin Rivers is an original piece of mixed media photography on wood from the Retrieval series. I created this piece using my own photography shot in northeastern and southern France as well as public domain archival images from  The Met Open Archives. Each element is hand cut and laid using analog collage techniques. Other elements include acrylic paint and medium. 

Inquire about this piece HERE.

How I source and care for historical materials → Sources

Description

The Original

Melusine by Robin Rivers is an original piece of mixed media photography on wood from the Retrieval series. I created this piece using my own photography shot in southern and northeastern France. I also used public domain archival images from The Met Open Archives. Each element is hand cut and laid using analog collage techniques. Other elements include acrylic paint and medium. 

The piece measures 36×48″ (w/h) and is mounted on wood. Shipping will be calculated based on location.  Please note that colours and contrast vary between different monitors.  The colours may not match your monitor’s display exactly. Additionally, copyright of my artwork does not transfer with purchase.

The Inspiration for Melusine by Robin Rivers

Through the Retrieval series, I work against the inherited iconography of medieval stained glass, recovering the feminine presence it was built to suppress. Each piece layers my own photography — shot across locations in France — with archival materials, returning the stained glass form to what it was shaped to obscure: women not as symbol or margin, but as origin. These are not reconstructions of a lost past. They are retrievals — what cultural memory would hold if it had never been severed from its source.
 
In Melusine, I wanted to respond to The Morrigan, which I created a month earlier. While The Morrigan recreated a rose window that called to the primordial feminine, Melusine becomes the portal, open and returning that energy to the world. I drew inspiration from old stories, holy wells,  and ancient ruined castles where I spent much time exploring in France and Scotland. There’s a nod here as well to Polish novelist Andrzej Sapkowski (of Witcher fame) and his incredible worlds that inspire me constantly. 
 

Sources

  • Original photography from Robin Rivers shot in March 2026 in Puyvert, France.
  • The Met Open Archives: Mermaid; Italian, Padua; 16th Century. Link to Image.
  • The Met Open Archives: Stag Trophy Head, Killed by Ned Ross; Horatio Ross British, born Scotland; ca. 1858 Link to Image.
  • Artist materials:
    • Acrylic paint,  acrylic matte medium

The Artist

Robin Rivers is an artist, photographer, and writer who creates from conversations with ancient ponds and old trees, spirits of place and old ones whose lost stories want to be told. As a mixed-media artist, Rivers works with original photography, museum archives, and storytelling to give form to the old ones who speak to her through dreams, deep listening, and walking the land in ancient places. Her practice weaves together mystical guidance and archival research, creating magical pieces that restore powerful lost connections and stories rising up once again. Robin creates all pieces at Studio Albertine in Vancouver, Canada—on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples. This includes the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Before you go, check out more of my work HERE.

Finally, be sure to follow me on SUBSTACK

Share your thoughts!

Let us know what you think...

Leave a Review Ask a Question Post a Video Post a Photo

What others are saying

There are no contributions yet.

×

Login

Continue as a Guest

Continue as a Guest

Related products