August 30, 2004

Photos

I don’t want to give you the wrong impression here, so I will start with the reality. Jessie Stone is a unique individual, with a unique set of parents. Her dad is one of the World’s foremost dealers of art, and an avid collector himself. Her dad is one of the friendliest and fun guys you could ever hope to be around. His hobby and profession, the collection and sale of fine art, and of artists that he has discovered himself is a huge success story. I am not an expert on what he does, but I am an onlooker and a guest in his house, again. Here is what you would find…

Jessie is unique, but you would not expect her to be as normal as she is if you saw her house and that is all you had to gauge her from. Imagine, a living room with a baby grand piano, but you can’t find it, because there is so much art, statues, etc. in the room, that it is hidden. Now, to give you a general feel, imagine all of the sets used to make every haunted house movie, all stored into one house, but all real. Now, this is mixed with many other types of art, that isn’t scary looking, for example:

Sitting in the kitchen, you ask Jessie, where the bathroom is and she replies: “Go through the doors, and at the third hallway go right and look for the really big naked black man, the bathroom is on your right.”

OK, so what I want to tell you about is the dead people. Yes, shrunken head, and even heads that aren’t shrunken. Not just ordinary people, but people who were beheaded, a priest, and village medicine woman, etc. etc. Bad fortune has followed all who have had the heads in their possession, but the Stone’s have a rule, never lift the glass off the heads, that will prevent bad things from happening. I can’t tell you what a weird, but exciting feeling you get sitting next to the heads in the dark in the middle of the awesome great room, like you feel their presence. In the dining room a beautiful painting (all of the art is incredible), you don’t know what when you first look at it, but something isn’t right. Finally, you realize that the girl has a slit wrist. Take a look at the photos for more than I can describe in months. This is a man’s life of collecting. I am not knowledgeable on art, so I imagine if I use words to describe what you get to see in their house, I would be offending the artist and collector with my ignorance.

Check it out (this is .1% of the art on the first floor alone)

Very cool,

EJ