Gemma Taccogna

a curious thing happened to me yesterday which, once again, re-affirms my intuition about the people behind the art i like and collect. for years i have collected paper mache pincushions with the most darling hand painted faces. i spotted the first at a swap meet in Carpinteria many years ago and had to have her. as the years went by, i kept looking for more to no avail. then i found a couple more en e-bay and soon i had four. i also collect collage paper and had saved a black and white photograph of a similar face never realizing it was the same artist. i never knew the artists name since there was no mention anywhere on the bottoms and the papers that had originally been there with the author's info were gone.

well, yesterday, i went browsing on e-bay for maybe another and found one at an exhorbitant price. it had the artists name and an unmet Reserve Price. i was so happy to at last know who the artist behind those faces was and did a thorough search on the net about her. sigh after sigh after sigh, reading about her and arriving too late to write to her to thank her for the joy she has brought into my sewing room; she passed away not too long ago and lived right in my back yard in Palos Verdes.

May i introduce her to you? GEMMA TACCOGNA

it's happened to me a couple of times, one more recent example being that i was the first one to spot Cathy Cullis on etsy when she listed her first poetry bird and one of her first buyers. i knew NOTHING about her, she was only just starting out, and i was able, through her work, to perceive the spirit behind the work. it just seems such a gift. and now it all comes together and my pincushions have suddenly become priceless. i could never part with then after knowing the artist who created them. her spirit reigns with me in my home.