Giafae

I would like to have met the artist that sculpted the original of this cameo. I do, of course, realize that much of the beauty of the piece comes from stylized techniques of a certain period in jewelry making history and that the author probably borrowed from other pieces considerably.
***
But somewhere along the line I have heard that art is about how a piece makes you feel. If someone can pee in a jar or throw colors at a canvas and call it art then I am going to assume (no, demand) that the definition of art is broad enough to include the application of truly remarkable skill and technique to produce a piece that stirs me every time I look at it.
***
I don't really want to attempt to explain what it is that I feel when I look at this cameo. To do that I would have to have felt everything I am going to feel. And I certainly don't want the freshness to stop. But I will say that I see Innocence, Friendship, Joy, Beauty, Playfulness among other fresh and alive qualities.... and a strength that comes from these qualities that would not be tainted by the filth that tries desperately to invade our lives.
***
Giafae (not her real name) would not have to run or hide from it because it has no part in her - there is nothing for it to tug at.
***
After all, isn't the power that filth has over us, that it lures parts of ourselves that we try to hide from others? To Giafae the stuff that seduces us is as mud on a kitchen floor, interesting enough to wipe up and put in the trash but certainly has no allure.
***
The faerie in this cameo has always been somewhat of a disappointment. I suppose that the detail that I desire is just too much for the medium but still...
***
The fact that the faerie is a disappointment, however, does not diminish the piece. It is as if the faerie is out of focus and so it draws me to the girl where the real story is anyway.
***
An artist throws a glob of red at a canvas and a splotch shows up randomly in the right corner - someone says "magnifique" - I say "bravo" to the fact that the medium was not strong enough to lure me into concentrating on the faerie (which is what I would have done) and to focus on the object of the faerie's musing.
***
So the cameo has become my logo for this blog.
***
I will probably never know anything about the artist of the cameo. It is an odd thing to me that someone could have lived and created such an inspiration (product of its time or not) and not have gotten any credit for it. But that is a blog of another day.
***