The Pawn Shop

20" x 30"
mixed media

The idea of poverty is never far away from the ever-present pawn shop, the likes of which are always tucked in somewhere in the city. The shop's window always includes a collection of objects that allude to what a civilized society deems valuable. Even the pawnshop's trademark, the 3 gold balls, was lifted from the coat of arms of the de Medici's whose practice of usury was made fashionable in a proper Christian society.
© Sol Robbins