Frog Labyrinth, Kevin Coates

Exhibition Label: "Material World: Adornment from Around the Globe," Jun-2014 “Winnie smiled. Then she stooped and put her hand through the fence and set the toad free. ‘There!’ she said. ‘You’re safe. Forever.’” -Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting Coates was originally asked to illustrate the children’s book Tuck Everlasting, instead however, he created a jeweled brooch that evolved out of his pleasure in reading Babbitt’s text. Coates writes, “This frog, like the toad in Natalie Babbitt’s delightful Tuck Everlasting, contemplates an infinitely repeated pattern of existence.” Indeed, the frog seems to be situated at the very precipice of infinity, complete with arrows leading the way. On the opposite side of the brooch, more arrows direct the frog’s golden footprints towards the center where a six-sided pyramid of carved moonstone gently glows. by Laura Minton Sloan Intern, Print Room