My Love Affair With Masks; Entry #17--The Cowardly Lion in the Leaf

justusagenstum (63)in #art • 8 years ago

As my mother got closer to retirement she began thinking of where she wanted to spend her golden years...as a military family, we had all scattered to the wind, she was living outside of Detroit in Bloomfield Hills, I was leaving 3 hours north of there, about an hour south of the Mackinaw Bridge, my brother was living in North Carolina, he never left after graduation, and my sister was living just outside of Washington, D.C., so her options were many. When she approached me about the subject I immediately suggested NC over all other choices...I admit, it was somewhat selfish in nature...I figured with Mom living in NC I would be able to visit with my brother and sister more, as well as my niece and nephews. As suggested, she came to NC and found a place, which she bought and had my brother move into. She then came back to Michigan for her final 2 years of work. She picked this mask up at a craft show/fair in one of the many little rural communities that abound down there.

At first sight, my immediate impression was of Leo, the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz movie. When I look at it now, as it hangs on my wall, I still have that same impression. When my mother grabbed this she also grabbed a business card, which I had instructed her to do; it had the information I was looking for and I was able to locate a web site and view other clay fired masks from this creator. I liked her work so much I actually suggested a mask set (comedy/tragedy) that no collection is complete without. She notified me when it was finished and I bought that one on first sight as well...I will feature them in the next post in this series!

My first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth entries in this series can be seen at these links.