Before The Advent Of Cheaper Chinese Imports Even Mass Produced Art Was Worthy Of A Signature. Status: Relagated To The Laundry Room.

These days you can pick up wall decor at just about any furniture store, most department stores and even discount places like Big Lots (love Big Lots!) but it's just something to fill the space between the walls or windows in most cases.  I don't think any of it's likely to gain a following in the future in quite the way that the Curtis Jere pieces have.

I'm not sure what the original owners thought about purchasing this kind of artwork but I find

the incongruousness with the less "hand wrought" surrounding that I've been finding these in

quite interesting.  The former owners of these pieces seem to keep very spiffy furnishings and

otherwise surroundings but then you'll find art on the wall that looks like it was tossed together

by a bored auto shop mechanic!  I'm not complaining.

This piece isn't dated but it is "signed".  The C. Jere isn't really a signature since these weren't

really produced by one person.  They were produced in mass by the Curtis Jere company and

just "signed" I guess to separate them from the riff raff of other bulk art.  At some point some

were dated but I don't know if the dating came first and was then abandon or if they started

dating these after a few years without.  I have seen pieces dated up into the 1980s so it may

be that the undated pieces are older.

I've also seen two copies of the same piece with one being signed and the other not.  At some

point the company either quit signing the pieces or sold the design to companies over seas...or

a combination of both.  The pieces that I've seen that are signed seem to have more mass to

them.  They seem to be a little better constructed, though that is still a very relative observation.

They're still just quick tack welded together!

I acquired this particular piece at an estate sale that we almost didn't even go to.  It was just

laying in a window frame that was along the stairs to the second floor and it was cheap.  I am

considerably warming to this style of Curtis Jere and I would display it more prominently but it's

a pretty sizable piece.  Plus I've been getting tired of a blah blank wall in the laundry room.  I

had been threatening to put some art in there since we moved in.  This (at 54 1/4" long) fills the

space nicely!