For me mermaids (and other creatures) represent fairy tales, certain aspirations, and almost naive ideas about life, painting them dead represents that the "ugliest fairytale" is in itself real life, where the existential experience is summed up as a narrative of survival and fatigue, until reaching the moral of "the sacrifice of a lifetime, for a decent death ", giving foot to a lifetime to relive that "fairy tale" through consumption, placebos and promises.
