Art by Mary Rochelle Burnham

Bust of Benjamin Franklin , oil, 7x5" SOLD Jean-Antoine Houdon French, 1741-1828 Tinted plaster after 1778 Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH Benjamin Franklin (1705-1790) went to Europe in 1776 to negotiate a treaty of alliance between France and the United States, and remained as the new nation's Minister to France until 1785. Through their fraternal and social activities, he became acquainted with the sculptor Houdon, who recorded in this portrait the statesman's thinning hair, sagging chin, and expression of wisdom and humor. Eight years later, on Franklin's recommendation, Houdon came to the United States to model a sculpture of George Washington.

Broken Angel , 10x8 on linen paper,  Available This little broken angel is part of a roadside memorial that brought tears to my eyes when I came upon it. It is decorated with beads and plastic flowers and the area is strewn with the rubble of decaying remembrance of things past. It seems to embody the dashed hopes and dreams of loved ones tragically lost. The original pencil study has been sold.

Evening Falls On General Williams , watercolor, 8x10" available My favorite statue at Belle Isle, Detroit, MI is of Major Gen. Alpheus Starkey Williams as he sits atop his horse, checking a map as his steed bows his head. Williams, a Detroiter, was a congressman, a judge, a lawyer, a postmaster, a newspaper publisher and a failed gubernatorial candidate, and was appointed a Brigadier General for the Union Army in the Civil War.