The Pop Five

I’ve talked about my parents’ house on these pages before, but I’ve never fully explained their stellar taste in art. My mom often says that one of the only reasons she worked was to support their art habit. My parents’ taste is quite eclectic and ranges from their Oklahoma roots with a strong Native American influence, to surrealist and cubist works peppered throughout.

Here are my five (or more) favorite pieces of work found in their loft.

It’s really no wonder one of us would become an artist. This is a custom installation from my twin sister, Ann, who is an incredible ceramist. It’s a piece based off Leonard Peltier’s, Prison Writings, My Life is My Sun Dance, which she was reading at the time. For many years, Peltier was serving his two life-sentences in my hometown at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.

This is one of two art walls in my parents’ house. It has some of my favorite works including a framed Mola tapestry (hanging to the left of the car image in the center) they gifted relatives one Christmas while they were living in Panama. These gorgeous textiles are pretty enough to solicit a frame (as they did).

While this isn’t art, per se, this vintage brass diving helmet my dad scored in Korea is displayed as if it were a sculpture. It lives in my mom’s bedroom and is the one item I absolutely covet in that house.

Talk about a conversation piece … I’ve always loved the Catalan painter Joan Miró human rights poster that hangs in the kitchen. The Unesco poster commemorated the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Delaration of Human Rights. Ironic that this week, in 2013, we were awash in a sea of red for equality. Same message, different decade. Love is love. 

Their hallway makes a statement with this trio—a painting from Kansas-based David Melby hanging over a mechanical elephant that my brother and sister named Tony, sitting next to vessels by Ann. Tony was given to David and Susan as a Christmas gift one year and still gives rides.