59 Frogs. Made out of glass, metal, plastic, tiger’s eye, jade, wax. A hat, two ornaments, a pair of earrings, a ring case, a photo of a Mexican Frogboy. Red ones, blue ones, and a couple that glow in the dark. A few that hop, one that squeaks, one that has tongue that jumps out at you.
I don’t collect frogs. It’s hard to believe by looking at this, but I’m telling the truth.
This collection chose me, I never decided to collect frogs.
My Aunt Marne is a great gifter. She has fantastic taste, a word traveler (even went to Antarctica) and she’s very generous. For some reason she thought that I collected frogs, so everywhere she went she’d pick one up for me. I’d accept it graciously and never really told her. People saw this building collection of items my aunt got me, and assumed that I collected froggies, so I started getting frogs from other people. My mother even bought me frog flip-flops and frog socks. I bought a box of plastic tropical frogs to add some color to the collection, but the majority of these were gifts.
In the summer of 2005 I traveled to Thailand with my aunt. We shopped and got massages like it was our job. Marne had to stop at every vendor selling wooden frogs. She bought at least a dozen in all shapes and sizes. I realized, at the 4th or 5th vendor, that the reason I got all those frogs was because SHE really likes them.
I have grown quite attached to them though. I’m not sure if I’m ready to let go of all of the frogs in the collection yet. HOWEVER, I gave away pieces of the collection away at the First Person Salon at the Gershman Y, Feb. 13th (For more info. see: First Person Arts). If you are interested I will give you a frog, too. In return I’d love to hear from you about its new life, or tell me a story, or write a poem, or take a picture, or whatever, for the miss koco archives.
