PHILOSOPHY

There are few pastimes, hobbies, or passions as rewarding and enriching as collecting fine art.  It sharpens the eye, heightens sensitivity, broadens knowledge, builds empathy, and fosters community.  It is a life practice that not only develops and invigorates the mind, body, and soul, but fulfills them.  And while we encourage any and all of our clients, friends, and patrons to collect art of all types from modern and contemporary to ancient and antique, there is something truly special about building a collection of antiquities.  Although collecting contemporary art can connect one to the issues of modern life and the beating pulse of creative spirit in the present, the appreciation of ancient objects cultivates our relationship to the past, to our identity, and to the human story at large.  It gives us the rare opportunity to reach back through the annuls of time and space, to literally touch history, to connect with our roots--with our predecessors, our ancestors, and our forebears--to feel their kindred spirits and personalities, to see through their eyes, to dream through their minds.  And in this process, it connects us with that great chain of being, with what it means to be human... to be part of this strange, mysterious, at times magical, at times maddening adventure called life.  To see that despite the passage of hundreds if not thousands of years, and the constant evolutionary development of socio-economic tools and external technologies, our ancestral brethren lived internal lives much like our own… with similar hopes, dreams, desires, passions, pains, and fears.   

To study the history of art is to immerse oneself in the best of what mankind has to offer… to view the world through the kaleidoscopic eyes of sacred culture… to admire and appreciate the divine human spirit made manifest through the diversity of the collective.  Modern life can be chaotic, confusing and and at times completely confounding.  The plurality of post modernism confronts us on all sides with fragmentation, divisiveness and dissolution... from our economies and nation states, to our philosophies and art forms. But there may be sweet solace found in re-connecting with our ground, with our truth.  When we acquire precious artifacts from our past, engage with them, and surround ourselves with them, we can soak in their ancient vibration, hear the words of their long lost voices, and perhaps even for a brief moment, remember a faint memory of what it was like to inhabit a world devoid of the noise, pollution, and distraction… a world where myth and reality merged… where men walked with Gods.  

It is our humble belief that every well rounded collection features a beautiful and dynamic selection of works both old and new.  Pieces that speak to the sensibilities and values of the owners from all different periods and places have a way of integrating in even more meaningful manners in the whole, and can create their own equilibrium.  Dynamism in context, creates lively conversation, and the contrast between old and new, classical and modern, may in fact form a perfect circle, one that provides the missing yin to our modern yang.