Amazing find, tucked into a book

On an antiquing trip along the CT coastline, I happened upon a small store that I almost neglected. But a wise teacher once told me that unexpected finds sit waiting to be discovered in the most unlikely places. As I was thumbing through an old book, twenty one small drawings fell out! All were written on the backs of letters between two family members , and dated 1866. They were obviously made by small, but extremely imaginative children, and they were clearly worth much more than the $10 price tag on the book. So I made my way up to the dealer, showed my find, and we negotiated a new price for the lot. This all happened years ago, but these small childhood drawings remain one of my favorite collections. The one with the alligator looks like a Traylor to me!

Master Weathervane maker.....Anthony Holland

Travis Tuck made a weathervane for the movie Jaws, back in the day. It was stolen from the set and he had to make another. Stephen Spielberg became a fan and added one to his personal collection years later. Then Anthony Holland came to Martha's Vineyard and became Travis's apprentice and together they created some of the most famous weathervanes in the country. The Fall issue of Martha's Vineyard Style magazine has done a spectacular article about Tony Holland's work. Get yourself a copy. It'll be a great read and the pages of photos are stunning.

The Museum of Everything opens in London

Secrets — you love them. Telling them, hearing them, keeping them — who cares? — as long as something is revealed. We’ve got a new one for you. Opening today is The Museum of Everything — a space dedicated to secret art. The temporary venue showcases paintings, sculptures and curiosities by unintentional artists. Like Fleury Joseph Crépin, a plumber, miner and spiritualist who received a calling to paint 300 temples. And the Indian road worker who created ceramics from recycled remnants of his village.

Although rarely seen by the public, such work is often used as inspiration by mainstream artists, many of whom have curated the inaugural exhibition.

But before you get a peek, you’ll have to find the anonymous black door of a former dairy and recording studio hidden down a back alleyway in Primrose Hill. Word is out. Art is in. The Museum of Everything, Sharpleshall Street, NW1 8YN (020 7957 5325 or museumofeverything.com).

Photo and article: Courtesy of The Museum of Everything

Inky Wings equals unparalleled art from England........

No one is better than Judith McNichol. There I said it. Her birdhouses are random and spectacular. Her found metal objects are so damn appealing. Her drawings are obsessive.......really obsessive and wonderful. Some of the larger ones.....six or seven feet long, allow you to choose a small space and get lost in the tiny detail. Back up and see that detail take on a larger voice in another form, back up again and it becomes a piece of an even larger puzzle. I am stunned by the intricacy and beauty of her work, and will someday try to photograph a huge piece which is presently rolled in a large tube in the closet. It would take up an entire wall, and deserves to do so! But I wouldn't have windows to the outside anymore.....only to the inside of a great artist.

Cynthia Rogers, a recycler of memories.......

Assemblage constructions are what Cynthia Rogers creates from "found objects, juxtaposed in surprising ways, subverting reason and bringing to the forefront subconscious associations, meanings and metaphors that express (Cynthia's) response to contemporary life."

This California artist has quite a vocabulary, made up of simple treasures and bits of flotsam and jetsam which are familiar and yet a little strange at the same time. She spent endless hours as a child, beach-combing, in hopes of finding the illusive and colorful hand blown glass globes used in the Sea of Japan in fishing nets, and on her walks she collected the sea's offerings, as many of us have done. But, instead of just existing as a collection decorating a shelf, some of these items have found their way into her assemblages. Cynthia has returned to these roots and adds to her bounty "discarded objects once loved, now abandoned. It is a kind of consumer recycling program, where psychologically, all things are considered." Click on the title link and explore her site, which is filled with wondrous surprises.