Agave art in a saguaro frame

Every now and then, I scan Etsy for all things agave—live plants, garden ornaments, art, etc.—just to see what's being offered. I literally just look; I can count the number of purchases on two hands. But a few weeks ago, I found something I had to have: a linocut print of a flowering agave by Chicago-area printmaker Alejandra Brightbill:

I love everything about this print. The fact that it was only $26 made it even sweeter. Beautiful and affordable!

Initially, I was going to mat the print and put it in a contemporary metal frame, but then I had a stroke of brilliance. Years ago, my mother-in-law, an inveterate yard sale explorer, had given me an 8×10 inch frame “made from the ribs of a sahuaro:”

It came from a place called The Cactus Shop in Florence, Arizona, owned at the time by an F. E. White:

Based on the spelling of “sahuaro,” I assumed this frame was quite old. The only reference to F. E. White I found was in a July 13, 1918 (!) blurb in the Arizona Copper Camp weekly:

I have no clue how the frame was made (woodworking is a mystery to me), but it has a lot of character:

Here is the finished piece:

I'm so glad I hung on to this old frame for so long. I knew that eventually I'd find the perfect piece of art to put in it!

© Gerhard Bock, 2021. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.