MIM guest discovers guitar she posed for years ago

During a recent visit to MIM from Toronto, a woman named Laurie Cumming decided to stop by the museum’s special exhibition Dragons and Vines: Inlaid Guitar Masterpieces, as she remembered a famous guitar maker, William “Grit” Laskin, from her hometown.

While exploring the exhibition, she was surprised to come across “The Puppeteer,” the very guitar created by Laskin in 1995 for which she and her husband were asked to model. The imaginative inlay on the guitar’s fingerboard depicts Cumming wearing a blue dress, standing beside her husband, John, in red pants.

“It was such a thrill to find that guitar as I’d never seen it in ‘real life,’ just in a photo,” says Cumming.

Dragons and Vines highlights more than thirty instruments featuring stunning inlay design created by North America’s finest inlay artists and luthiers. Each instrument shows incredibly detailed artwork created from materials including abalone shell, mother-of-pearl, coral, gold, copper, wood, and others. It was a pleasure to have Cumming visit and experience such a personal connection to one of the instruments displayed at MIM.

Presented in partnership with the Maryland-based inlay company Pearl Works, this special exhibition is on display at MIM’s Target Gallery through September 4 and costs $7 with paid museum admission and $10 for exhibition only.

 

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