Le Troisieme ACEO

This is my third installment in my NEW! ACEOs Collector series. For those of you who are just tuning in ACEO stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals, they are miniature pieces of collectible art. As my collection grows, I will post short musings on what each piece means to me as an art collector. I love the way that sounds, I get a mental image of myself donning a monocle and thumbing through my collection in white gloves. Laughs.

The third piece in my collection came quite the distance from Trieste, Italy to the comforts of my cozy Goodyear AZ home in the United States. I must admit searching for just the right piece for my growing collection can become tiresome and tedious even, but just because they aren't costly doesn't mean I should go about the business of collecting without a deeply pocketed mindset.

While perusing Etsy on the evening of January 21st I came across this piece by Dilkabear. The piece is titled New Dress and it is an image of a black child in... well, a new dress. I don't know what it was about the piece but I sat and stared at it for some time. I just fell in love with it, as cliche as it seems, it was love at first sight. All sorts of nostalgic thoughts ran through my mind. Thoughts of a time before the hair weave and the chemical relaxer. I thought of sitting on pillows between my mother's knees holding the Bergamot hair dressing in one hand and the comb in the other. She'd alternate between plaiting and parting, I went from gasp to grimace in unison. It is disheartening at times to see so many images of blackness that are simply darkened generic images that pay no homage to the complexities of color and texture of our people. I didn't feel any of this when I encountered this original ink drawing. Dilka manages with a pen and watercolors to paint such vast imagery, there is so much story in this piece. Her tightly woven hair, the innocence in her gaze and of course, the profound beauty of her new dress.

I have a perfectly pristine daughter, nothing and I mean nothing on her little body has been altered. I hope as she blossoms into a woman, she remains true to form desiring only, to renew her inner sense of beauty with the occasional new dress.

Dilka's growing gallery can be found in her Etsy shop, Dilkabear. Thank you. Please leave a comment in appreciation of her fine work(s).