The Graven and the Brazen

Reflections on the Art of Nummist Sculpture

How many nine-lived generations of cats must have idealized the stony flanks of that Great Sphynx of Egypt, only to experience the greatest confusion, repulsion and dismay upon viewing its ape-like face?

Whether we can say with authority that the evolution or intelligent design of Nummist sculpture has stemmed from fertilizer of rotten disappointments of ages past, it luminates that the art as it contemporarily flourishes stands in stark contrast to any precursors.

To defer to the myriad-fold valuation ratio of the picture to the word, let us consider the following:

Study in Snow #1. by Joseph Howse. Portraying Plasma Tigerlily Zoya with Samuel Howse's sculpture of Dr. L. S. River, NummNumm. February 2006.

We may note (while endeavouring to err, if we must err, by presuming too little instead of too much) how the audience and object must interact—or else be indistinguishable!

Study in Snow #3. by Joseph Howse. Portraying Plasma Tigerlily Zoya with Samuel Howse's sculpture of Dr. L. S. River, NummNumm. February 2006.

Thereof we must speak, whereof we cannot be silent. This will be the subject of another installment.