This is Mavis...

or as the rest of the world recognizes- Venus de Milo without her head.

I should have known that immediately too, I mean - I took Art History at The University of Texas, and even made an A in the class, but somehow her true identity alluded me. To me she was just a beautiful vintage concrete garden statue that we found in Austin years ago. I fell for her sharp details and the folds in her garment, so delicate and refined for a concrete statue. We found the iron base at an estate sale in Dallas, it was in the backyard under some weeds and wasn't even for sale until we asked after it; I think we paid $6 for it. We had a square iron piece cut to fit the top so that Mavis could stand on the stand.

Now, flash forward about a year... Dan and I are in the Louvre in Paris, and we are walking down the long corridor toward the Sully wing, and there forty feet ahead of us, straight away, is

the Venus de Milo.

Dan and I, at the same moment, have the same realization and turn to each other and simultaneously (and loudly) exclaim.......
"It's MAAAY- VIS!!"

I'm sure we sounded like the biggest country bumpkins! The French were thinking "silly Americans..."

Mavis stands at the entrance into the Reading Room which is directly behind the living room,and her cousin Venus is still at the Louvre.