Enlightened Matter

So we in the EM Art Procurement Division (Building 10-A Corporate Headquarters Quadrant L) have to profess a fondness for art deco era artwork. So when we came across an estate auction with a collection of 1930’s era woodblock prints we had to have them. When the bidding started we assumed we would be outbid since we basically…well quite simply we are destitute. So anyway somebody did run us up but only to $35.00-$45.00 a piece and then they stopped. We were stunned to be the owners of what appeared to be a collection of 9 authentic signed and dated artist proof woodblock prints. We could not believe that we had just stolen the Mona Lisa. We were rich!

Well it turns out the seller was trying to dump them because they were anything but legitimate….or were they? It seems that these prints were not printed above board….they were forgeries….or were they? They were supposedly printed by a player by the name of E. M. Washington who evidently perpetrated one of the greatest art scams in recent memory.  At least that is what many believe.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060831095956/www.earlmwashington.com/stories.htm

But others believe that E. M. may have actually used the original blocks from the original proofs, albeit unauthorized, and others believe that some of E. M.’s work is a combination of original prints and skillfully copied forgeries.  So we are just glad that we did not bid hundreds of dollars we did not have. Nonetheless the images reek of 1930’s Deco.  We had several framed and they look great. So is it art? We think so.

Check out our E.M. Washington Woodblock Prints at http://www.enlightenedmatter.com/

Better late than never……..

http://www.enlightenedmatter.com

Thanks for visiting us

Dirty old men and clowns……

G.I. Joe tell me at ain’t so…………oh wait I wasn’t supposed to ask

We have fun looking at the happenstance positioning of auction items. If only they could talk.

Enlightened Matter’s Fifteen Minutes of Fame

We were pleased to be featured in the Fall 2009 issue of Manhattan Magazine. Yes little old Manhattan, Kansas has its very own glossy magazine.  It is well done and makes us feel all big city-ish. Thanks to Sunflower Publications for creating such a nice magazine and thanks to Lou Ann Thomas and Tim Sigle for the story and pictures.

See the story at http://issuu.com/sunflower_publishing/docs/mmf09?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fdark%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true

And don’t forget to visit our site at http://www.enlightenedmatter.com

Okay our time is up. Time to get back to reality.

Attended a late season farm auction this weekend.  November in Northeast Kansas can be mild but it can also go south real quick.  But when you’re a junkie a little damp (85% humidity) chilly (45°) wind (30 MPH gusts) won’t stop us.  So about 6 miles down a dusty gravel road we came upon the farm sitting quaintly in a valley…real picturesque late fall setting…..it was a well kept hard working ranch. The auctioneer had the yard set up with the trailers and the good stuff was hidden in one of the barns out or the wind. The local church youth group was manning (and womanning) the lunch stand. Coffee was a hot item. We started perusing the trailers and realized that there really were no treasures but enough to pique our interest. After all we were too far in the boonies to turn back and look for better options. There were lots of family members there and they were unfortunately picking through the items and hauling the best ones back into the house. Not something we like to see but hey it is their stuff. None the less we noted lots of other families and friends of the family showing up….they looked like local farm families and not the grizzled auction veterans that we normally see.  It was kind of refreshing. They were actually buying the house hold items to use and not resell.  They appeared to be glad to score deals on the used pots and pans and Tupperware….they were not looking to make a profit on these items…not that you could if you tried. We picked up a few items that interested us and other items we let go at reasonable prices. No need to drive up the bids for sport…not that we ever do that….unless of course it is one of the grizzled veterans that wants the same item as us. No this was just one of those classic examples of people recycling their stuff all for a good cause at a good and fair price. 

We arrived back at EM HQ (Enlightened Matter Headquarters to you newbie’s) and I saw an email for an online auction. Hey another auction from the comfort of my office….tell me more. Turns out it was an auction of the Bernie and Ruth Madoff estate. Yep that Madoff. Here is the link- hopefully it works and you can see some of the prices paid for their ill gotten goods…  http://www.proxibid.com/asp/Catalog.asp?aid=23422

What person needs 10 Rolex watches…and that was just Bernie?  The contrast between the two auctions that day was absolutely stunning. Hard working farm families as honest and humble as the sun is warm excited to purchase a used food processor for $5.00 and a guy who bought diamonds and one of a kind $30,000.00 watches for the absolute hell of it.   Two worlds all right but all wrong just the same.

Awhile back the EM team was attending a genuine estate auction in Osborne, Kansas.  It was one of those 3 generation family in one house deals….lot of old stuff. I mean old. But it was all in impecable condition. They obviously had good taste and and some means to buy nicer quality items. So we were wading through the victoriana and primitive farm antiques when out of the corner of my eye I spied this painting of a naked lady. She screamed mid-century (20th) contemporary. Amidst the antiquities shone this beacon of abstract beauty. I was smitten. I had to have her. Since there were no other mid-century fans at this particular sale I was able to bag the painting for $50.00. Well as you can see the model is rather…shall we say….wide of girth so we have affectionately named her Chunky Monkey.

Fast forward several years and in a moment of spare time I decided to see if the artist by the name of Cromwell is noteworthy (read collectable). I assumed that it was  such an odd find that maybe a family member had painted it in art class. So I Googled the name and lo and behold an artist by the name of Larry Cromwell came up. http://www.larrycromwell.com/artist.htm

He is living in Canada and still painting. Albeit naked animals, mostly fish and not women. We emailed him a photo of Ms. Monkey and he quickly replied. It is one of his paintings but since it was 1966 he admitted that he could not remember specifics. It apparently was from his acrylics period in the mid 60’s. It was also when he was invited to exhibit one of his works for the first time. He thanked us for the trip down memory lane. I am glad that he did not say that it was his wife or lover- we would have to do something about that name.

Visit Chunky Monkey at http://www.enlightenedmatter.com/

Story goes an elderly gentleman in picturesque Valley Falls decided it was time to sell his lifelong belongings and move into an assisted care living facility. Not an easy choice to make for anybody. But this gentleman did not have any direct family and he was a bit of a collector so he called the local auctioneer and asked him if his stuff would sell. He was particularly keen to see if his prized model ‘T’ would bring a $1,000.00. The auctioneer chuckled. You see this kindly senior citizen was the original owner of the car, as was his father and his father’s father. He was the 3^rd generation of the same family to hand the car down. The car had been well kept and recently restored. It was immaculate. He had made the difficult decision to pass it on to another good home.

So what he hoped was worth a meager $1,000.00 actually sold for $14,500.00 still a bargain but a veritable bonanza for the seller. Everybody won and everybody was happy. Life goes on and so does Walt’s model ‘T’

We are always amazed by the things people collect. We have seen bidding battles for vintage bedpans and we have seen grandmotherly types go Mano y Mano over doll heads…not the whole doll mind you,  just the heads. Okay they were nice heads but hey how do you play with just a head?  Anyway one of the proverbial big ticket items that we just cannot get our brains around is the fascination with crocks. These are the bigger cylindrical containers that may have been used to churn butter, hold milk or water or other food stuffs. These are a utilitarian item and definitely served a good purpose and for the most part they are unadorned….in other words they are pretty boring. Occasionally there is a manufacturers marking and a number indicating the capacity and this really increases the value. 

We watch in amazement at the number of high bids that these pedestrian objects will draw.  $450.00 for a 5 gallon crock with some red wings on it…..what are we missing here?  Well we like to educate ourselves about the items we see at auctions and even though we understand and appreciate the value of these stoneware salt glazed red clay vessels we still don’t get it. Although if we had a bunch down in the cellar I bet we would learn to appreciate them real fast.

This is a great website for educating yourself to the beauty and value of crocks;

http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/americanstoneware/

 And that ain’t no crock.

Okay so veering somewhat from our focus on designed objects to something a little less tangible, but certainly as memory inducing, we at Enlightened Matter are proud to present what may be our ultimate example of reuniting objects with those that may have lost contact or given up along the way. If you regret giving up your record collection back when analog music was un-cool or you just need a safe place to invest what little money you have left you will want to read this.

Continuing our tribute to Woodstock and mid century era rock and roll musical memories, we have convinced the head of our music and literature department (A.K.A. “djdudemanhey”) to offer up his complete collection of domestic U.S. Beatles albums. Those who were there during those momentous times in Rock N’ Roll history know that during 1964-1970 the Beatles issued 18 albums to the American market. Those that were there, but do not remember that they were in fact “there”, can read about it in books. Those that were just a twinkle in their parent’s eyes at the time have probably heard all of the stories and have seen the Beatles tributes on film and Xbox . This ain’t no video game- this is the real McCoy. Anyway there were numerous unauthorized and bootleg records issued in that period and hundreds of authorized and non-authorized since. But there were only 18 official Beatles albums issued during their recording career. These early pressing records are becoming scarce as vinyl collectors scour the country for the few remaining unclaimed copies. Well we at Enlightened Matter are proud to offer the ultimate example of re-uniting objects with memories.

We offer the entire 18 original vintage Beatles album collection.

No crawling through moldy basements, no groveling to elderly hippies whose grasp of economic reality is slipping, no being duped by wiley dealers looking to take advantage of a naïve collector (not that that ever happened to us ). You can have them all by pressing a few buttons. Ahh technology!

It was a challenge for us to coerce “dj” to give up his bounty but when we told him that he would be unable to listen to his records after he passes on to Rock and Roll heaven (or “hell” depending on your religious perspective) he reluctantly capitulated under one term…

”just don’t freakin’ give ‘em away. I spent years finding those damn records”.

dj was also willing to admit that the real appeal of his collection lies in the thrill of the hunt. Like many hunter and collector types “dj” acknowledged that he really does not listen to his Beatles collection- but he does find satisfaction fondling them once or twice a year. As dj claims,

“I would frame them and mount them on the walls of my smoking lounge but the mounted heads of the Gnu’s get in the way”

Given the size of the collection and the intensity with which the serious collectors rate and categorize investment quality vinyl we have tried to be as descriptive as possible. We believe the asking price to be fair given the age, quality and breadth of the collection. If all of these records were in fact in Mint condition the value would be several thousand dollars. We would love to offer 18 early issue records in mint condition. We would also love to own the state of Hawaii. These records range from near mint to merely good but overall they are a very good representation of a period of time that many baby boomers will forever remember fondly. Or you may just want to invest in a piece of musical history that will only increase in value…you greedy capitalist former hippie you.

SEE PAGE 5 OF NEW PRODUCTS ON http://www.enlightenedmatter.com/

Although we spent most of our time in Miami checking out the sites in SoBe (or South Beach if you are not into the whole brevity thing) we did stumble on an antique store. Not being able to resist we ventured in expecting the usual antique mall set-up with divided up areas and lots of small chotzkees and what-nots. I guess we forgot where we were. The furniture and architectural embellishments of Tony Montana and every drug lord dwelling on Miami Vice seems to have ended up here. It was over the top. Huge (I mean Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts huge) chandeliers of every sort including a large Chihuly dripped from the ceiling. The pictures do not do the actual scale justice. The furniture was a broad range of classic mid-century to 1980’s indulgent hyper-design. I think I saw Tony Montana’s desk with lots of smudges still on the glass top…..Okay that is a stretch but hopefully you get the picture. We were so awestruck that I failed to notice the full size Brontosaurus peeking out from behind a wall.

It’s a good thing we are just a couple of country bumpkins from Kansas. There is no way that Brontosaurus would fit in the overhead compartment on the plane back.