Blog

MC inherited a pottery floor vase, a quirky work from the mid-1970s by genius Santa Maria potter, William “Bill” Shinn (1932-2011). Did Shinn get inspiration for the design from a …

Why did people use washbats, a washboard, washbox, washing dollies, peggylegs, possers, posssticks, dollypegs, peggy, maiden, plunger, ponches, and punchers? They used these to wash clothes with or without a …

2019: what a year! The art and design world CHANGED that year, and we thought it had changed forever. More of us want to forget the year 2019 because important …

KC sent me a “relief” three-dimensional image of an eagle. This work created out of plaster, a plaque, boxed in the image on three sides measures seventeen by twenty-eight inches. …

JE owns a wonderful 1900s vintage Japanese necklace composed of faces of benevolent gods. The links are porcelain on sterling. The faces, and the gods they belong to, are important …

Imagine a clock that winds itself based on changes in atmospheric pressure. This Atmos clock doesn’t need a human. It winds itself with the help of a sealed bellows of …

Frightening yet beautiful, this wooden and polychromed (painted with many colors) carved Bapende mask from Zaire belongs to a group collected by a world-famous celebrity. The current owner asked, “Where …

Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966), an American Quaker master of the fantastic, created a commercial style also recognized as fine art. Known as a book and magazine illustrator in great demand, an …

At the Boys & Girls Club, my favorite thrift store in Ventura, I found an ugly Brutalist folk art style wood carving. This one-legged man sits with a cane. For …

My Montecito artist friend, AWS, experienced the phenomena we call “artist block.” He taught a class to a local Arts Association about ways to overcome “creative block.” He called last …