The Banana Connection
In November of 2024 a banana duct-taped to a white plaster wall sold for $6.2 million at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Auction. Conceived as an edition (series) of five, titled Comedian, …
Beautiful Sommerso Glass
FF owns a nice midcentury example of a technically challenging type of glass. Sommerso, or “submerged,” a technique developed in Murano Italy in the 1930s required skill and dexterity. His …
Barye’s Camel Reproduction
PP owns a twenty-inch plaster cast of a dromedary (Arabian) camel ‘after’ (reproduced from) a sculpture by Antoine-Louis Barye (1795-1875), the great bronze artist/animalier of the mid-19th century. Sculpture of …
Rejuvenate with Japanese Singing Bowls
Post election we need deep relaxation, pain relief, digestive help, cure for migraines, repaired immune system, elimination of toxins (too much wine), and better concentration. I thought this the time …
Tradition, history, power, and beauty of Kifwebe Mask
The word Kifwebe means “mask” for the people of the Congo River basin, the Luba and Songye tribes. High-ranking, ruling elite men in a tribal secret brotherhood called Bwadi Bwa …
Basket in the Wounaan Tradition
HH owns a lovely ten inch tall Panamanian basket made by indigenous Darien Rainforest artists in the Wounaan tradition. You see a lifelike bat design woven into the fibers. I …
Decanter With a Special Shape
JE owns an elegant Art Deco green glass decanter trimmed with gold leaf with an eleven inch clear glass stopper. It likely originated in Italy or Czechoslovakia in the 1930s …
Our Family’s Boston Sharpener
Few illustrious tourist attractions in Ohio rank higher than the Reverend Paul Johnson’s Pencil Sharpener Museum located in the middle of the State. The reverend’s wife donated it after he …
Pair of Standing Nodding Magots
A plump grotesque porcelain figure in the Asian style, the head nods, hands bob up and down, tongue lolls in the smiling mouth. We call this a nodding magot, a …
Grandparents Spanish Lady Painting
EF, who receives my monthly “Stuff-Whisperer” newsletter, read that I visiting my brother in Malaga, Southern Spain the first two weeks of September. Because I experienced Andalusian culture recently she …