The Shannikin Mannikin

In case you're wondering what this life-size mannikin has to do with art, she is totally home-made Beneath the doll mask is a papier mache head and quite homely face. The Shannikin was originally the Ronnikin so bald, big-nosed and with a gaping hold for a mouth into which a cigar once hung.

It's been two years since the Shannikin has left the basement there being a bit of a prohibition about faces given that one of my neighbours was Muslim and asked that I not put anything with a face near the house. Scared the angles, she said. I complied but she moved last month and it's time to go back to having a pumpkin in October and Santa in December and the Easter Bunny in April.

The Shannikin Mannikin, she's just gravy!

I believe that I'll bring her on Saturday to La Petite Mort and establish her outside in a chair as I plan to use this photo or a similar one in the next mini-newsletter and in this way, people will know that they have found the right spot.

If I stand her by the corner of Cumberland and St. Patrick, people will think that she's a lady of the night.