-Mary and Little Lamb- still bank 1901

This anonymous “Mary and Little Lamb” still bank at the Minneapolis Institute of Art is made of cast iron, and I wonder what year it was made. It’s humble in its materials, yet this piece has a real presence. The surface of the bank is wonderfully textured. The paint has aged, with patches of rust showing through, giving it a tactile quality, like a landscape seen from above. Zooming in, I love how the artist let the materiality of the cast iron become a part of the finished piece. The way the brown paint pools in the crevices, emphasizing the form but also obscuring detail, speaks to the nature of time and change. This isn't a pristine object; it's lived. It reminds me a little of some of the earlier work by Elizabeth Murray, the way she embraced form and used the physicality of the painting to push beyond the boundaries of the canvas. Art is a conversation, an ongoing exchange. Like the nursery rhyme it’s based on, this little sculpture embraces ambiguity, encouraging us to find our own meaning in its weathered surface.