Lightning Strikes Twice

Collectors dream of finding important, unknown pieces at Estate Sales, it's the thrill of the hunt combined with the ache of *wanting it*. My friend Teresa Rogers clued me in on a sale in our area, warning me that there was a possibly important piece there by the sculptor Maureen Love, whose work we collect. I was involved in writing two early books about Maureen and her work. So, recruiting Craig, we all were in the driveway of this sale at 5 am, trying to beat the dealers. We found not one but TWO pieces that Maureen cast and glazed herself. Karma was very good to us. This is a MAJOR find. This is as close to the artist's work as you can get.

Mine was glued in a glass case...so I bought the entire case. We were afraid to bring her home glued into the case, the fabric was loose and the door was broken, so Craig went to the store and bought us scissors so that we could cut her off the fabric, sitting in Jack in the Box. It was freakin' weird.

I'm going to send her to Kristina Lucas Francis to restore and document, she has been doing the most excellent research on Hagen-Renakers, as well as fantastic restoration work. The horse deserves top notch restoration, and Kristina is among the very best.

The production piece is on the left, the original sculpt on the right. There is something very immediate and gestural, expressive, something more emotive about these original sculpts.

For more about this piece, please read Theresa Roger's excellent blog post.