Day 22: Pucker up!

I'm Adam Sell and I have two months left before I leave Boston. My challenge? Do something in the city every day. Have ideas for my adventure? Send me an email.

This might be the first time I abandoned an activity halfway through because I thought I'd seen all I needed to see. My goal of exploring all the art galleries on Newbury Street came to an abrupt halt after I visited the Pucker Gallery.

In my four years living in the city proper, I've never come across the gallery before today. I saw a sign out front promoting a Pablo Picasso plate exhibition, and that was all it took to get me in the door. From there, I was given a guided tour of the five floors of the gallery, which included pieces from all parts of the globe, some of which were supremely eye-catching.

Like the Inuit sculptures, for example. That was my personal favorite part of the gallery. I also particularly admired the "cloth paintings" of Alison Cann-Clift - she creates these pieces that from distance look as though they were made with paint, but are actually formed with needle and thread.

The tour was both organized and disorganized at the same time. Everything that fell under a particular category, like the pottery of Brother Thomas, was kept in one room. But the museum itself didn't have a flow to it, likely due to space issues. Five floors of a Newbury brownstone don't make it easy to put things in any sort of an order, I expect. The tour guide did an admirable job anticipating what I might look at next and explaining the nature of the piece, and for that I was grateful.

Upon leaving the gallery, I thought I'd accomplished what I'd set out to do. I've no doubt I missed some great work a little bit farther down Newbury, but sometimes you gotta quit while you're ahead.