De'Joneiro Jones

There was a Downtown St. Louis urban housing tour yesterday. It's interesting for us locals to see what's become of the commercial buildings that surround downtown, many of beautiful design, that became derelict. There are a lot of nice apartments and lofts now, but shooting apartment interiors doesn't enchant me.

Unless, of course, the person in a space makes it so. De'Joneiro Jones and I have run into one another before. He lives in the interestingly named Leather Trades Artist Lofts on Locust Street. I guess that was the original purpose of the building. Now it provides living and working space to artists and artisans. DJ, as people call him, is a painter and trades in antiques. I don't want to put his email address out here for all the spammers to copy but if you're interested in what he has to offer, e-mail me and I'll get it to you.

There are two examples here. Mrs. C and I know a smidge about South Asian art and, of course, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. We think the statue represents a tara, a female Buddhist diety. However, the hand gestures of Buddhist figures are known as mudras and have specific meanings. I can't find these in any of the tables online. The lotus growing from the sole of the foot must mean something but I couldn't find any reference.  If someone out there knows more, please help me out.

The second picture shows a beautiful engraving of a bust of Andrew Carnegie, who endowed innumerable libraries in this country. DJ thinks the central branch of the St. Louis Public Library, just a short distance away, should buy it. I say it should get off its institutional butt and just do it.