Patricia Valdata Head of a Woman It all degrades: paint fades, varnish cracks, canvas mildews and frays. Clouds dissipate, leaves turn brown and fall. The bookbinding rots, The Ice Man melts. Even petrified wood: where did the cellulose go? Maybe decay is deliberate, like Navajo sand painting, words scribed in chalk on a rainy sidewalk, swans sculpted from ice. No matter. We are all made with inherent vice. See it in the museum, your mirror. Inherent vice: The inevitable degradation of a material, for example, the artist used material in a way that hastened deterioration or intended to have short life.        ~ Hirshhorn Museum

With apologies to William Shepherd: "Richmond Woman," 1920.

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