Signing In

      Have you seen those ceramic stand-alone fireplaces they have all over Mexico? Last month I was listening to Ren Ellis play blues with the boys when suddenly I became aware of what I’d been staring at for the last five minutes: It was one of those chimeneas, about three feet tall… not lit, just in repose. As I stared, it became apparent that this object had been handmade by a true artist. Layers of subtle earth colors gradually made themselves perceptible, like one of those puzzles where you first see the figure, then the “field” pops out. This simple thing was a sculpture, one I appreciated as much as the Rodins I used to visit in the sculpture garden at Balboa Park.
      And then I looked upward and felt my “Fellini smile” creep over my face. On the top of this sculpture, where the smoke was meant to escape, sat a stamped-out carnival plaster white unicorn. The artist placed that silly unicorn there on purpose! For all I know, the unicorn was the whole reason for being of the chimenea in the first place.
      The juxtaposition of loveliness and kitsch seems rampant here in Old Mexico. Felini-smiling in response is, I think, one’s best bet.

—Cindy