Metal Urges

Mixed bouquet

Our phones promise rain Sunday, but the day dawns sunny … it’s not until after lunch that we get a nice soaking. Lulled, I take a nap; and awake to what seems like waning late afternoon. Unwilling to let the weekend go, we head out for a quick turn around some local antique/junk stores. Remarkably crowded for a rainy day, we negotiate the tight aisles; I bypass a browsing family to get to a favorite room in the back where I’ve seen cool garden things in the past, and find something intriguing. Labeled ‘GARDEN ART’ it looks like a slightly dangerous metal bouquet. I must have this! Excited, I begin backtracking to discuss pricing with the cashier up front when I hear Paul call out to me from the backroom. He’s found something too — something cool that I missed …

Metal morpher

I wander back and he shows me something pretty amazing behind my metal mixed bouquet: some sort of rusted metal faux bois cross-bar topped with what looks like a lizard! Momentarily upset that I missed this prize, I rush again up front; now I need to know the combined price for both items! After the cashier tracks down the pieces’ owner, we’re quoted a combined price of $150 — sold! Now to extricate them from their places; Paul goes with the owner to help wrench them free (both are unwieldy and heavy) and I take care of payment. I can’t wait to get home and get a good look at them …

Functional art

The lizard piece is actually a tree-like structure (a tracery of tiny welds along the trunk add realism) with two reptile representations up top. What we think is simply a lizard with a long, sinuous tail, is actually a snake on one end becoming the zig-zagging markings on the lizard’s back. With screw-hole eyes and a twisting tongue, Paul’s new lizard has got real personality. We don’t know yet where, or how, we’ll work this into the Rancho’s scheme but it could have several functions; almost 5-feet tall, it could serve as an outdoor light fixture, a hanger for a planter or as a support for something else. Paul’s a lizard aficionado, so he’s especially proud to own this amazing piece. I love it too … although I’m still kinda mad that I missed it! (I know: too competitive.)

Dangerous beauty

My find, the metal bouquet, is an almost-malevolent combination of sharp welded angles topped with metal blooms and twisting flourishes. Painted with colorful enamel spray paint, the piece reminds me of a three-dimensional representation of the work of Kim MacConnel … it has the same exuberant color sense and references to classic decoration with its flowers and flounces.

I’m glad we left our sleepy afternoon for  this late-Sunday shopping jaunt, if we hadn’t we might’ve never found these great pieces … I know both will be fascinating additions to the Rancho’s visual landscape.