Enigmatic Carved Folk Art Bust cow vertabrae who must at some point

who must at some point have been commemorated with their own deck of cards

very little little painted wooden geese

A curious little whimsey

and make one (me) think it would be pretty fun to introduce some secret codes into daily life

This is one of the most wonderful Kuna Mola I have seen--picked from among a large collection of them from an artist and gallerist who dealt in them

Enigmatic Carved Folk Art Bust cow vertabrae who must at some pointEvery time I look at this carving, I see it differently sometimes thinking it is a woman represented and sometimes a man; sometimes thinking African American and sometimes thinking it feels a bit Germanic or even Dutch. My best guess is it is a portrait of a black woman, and that the carving is American, but I don't know for sure. In any case, I really like how expressionistic it feels in addition to its elusiveness, which is amplified by the darkness