WHY IS THIS SCULPTOR A NAME TO KNOW

Critics say he's a major artist. Philip Kennicot of The Washington Post recently said, "Any reasonably complete collection of American art over the past half century will include the work of Martin Puryear."

Browsing around, I saw this photo of Puryear's "FaceDown," a bronze he made in 2008. The look of it, the feeling I get from this haunts me.

In New York City's Madison Square Park, Martin Puryear's huge "Big Bling" has just been installed. 

The Smithsonian American Art Museum in D. C., through September 5, 2016, is featuring works by the 75-year-old Martin Puryear. Here's what you will see if you wander through the current exhibit.

If you want more specifics (like the price) for these pieces, here's a list of what's at Smithsonian. In the Murray Hill section of  Manhattan, you can see some of Puryear's drawings at the Morgan library.

I'm definitely impressed. What I see and read about Puryear's work makes me feel vulnerable, and quite small. I can't explain what any of these sculptures mean, but their size, the craft that must have been involved, the hugely dramatized, hugely exaggerated sense of reality that these sculptures convey connects to what I feel when I'm not working -- just walking, looking ahead, crossing a street, looking up -- even when I'm flagging down a taxi.

I'll say it again -- I feel small, unimportant, insignificant in a world surrounded by huge, every day huger things. This artist's art is expressing what I feel, and making me to feel that way more than ever.

This video seems to touch upon why this artist is more than a name  for us to know.

(VIDEO) OUR PINK GATE

John Cullum tells how his wife, Emily, dealt with a robber, while he out of town performing in Richard Burton's "Hamlet," and explains how a floor-to-ceiling pink metal gate made their two floors a safe home.

What happened to it? Why do John Cullum and Emily Frankel now have another gate --one  that quite easily, can be opened? If you visit us, how do you get into our home sweet home?