TWIGS
Northern Westchester Hospital's Philanthropy
914 666 6557
Winter 2017-18
How da Vinci Defines our Gift Wrap. . .and Glad Tidings for your New Year
Isabella of Aragon? Lisa del Giocondo? Or Leonardo da Vinci himself?
Scholars most often recognize the "Mona Lisa" as Lisa del Giocondo, a young woman from 16th century Florence whose family commissioned this portrait as a wedding gift to her husband.
Of Leonardo da Vinci they requested that del Giocondo (later known as "La Joconde " by the French and "Il Giocondo" by the Italians) be portrayed for her beauty and poise. In the following centuries European courts vied for the honor of exhibiting "Mona Lisa" (twice she was stolen!). Today we, Twigs, can't help but notice she incarnates some of the themes we hold most dear.
How did da Vinci know we adore a sweet smile? That we relish near symmetry? That we, too, feel poetry to be painting and that painting in its highest form is a sort of poetry?
Could it be that "Mona Lisa" intimates our greatest secret? That Thrift for Philanthropy is more than our poem but our purpose? That we specialize in culling the "thrift and drift" of the ages for our clients, donating 100% of proceeds to Northern Westchester Hospital?
Perhaps we drape ourselves in the very devotion that "Mona Lisa" did (chocolate brown, oh so chic during the Renaissance, we’ve evolved into our rose smock).
Likewise, we fold our hands, not so much with the patience that "Mona Lisa" demonstrates as the world’s most celebrated subject, but with the certainty that great things are to come. The trajectory of our treasures is mapped by faithful donations (how apt da Vinci's wending roads and winsome hills) so that they arrive at the loggia of our boutique.
Note that Twigs volunteer and long-time Corresponding Secretary par excellence, Margaret Marcogliese, models our newly arrived "Mona Lisa" patterned gift wrap. So step right up, purchase what you will, and head to your party destination with confidence. At last, we honor the enigmatic and elegant source of our donated treasures with packaging that befits them.
As da Vinci’s "Salvator Mundi" sold at auction this winter for a record-breaking $450 million, one could easily cite him as "man of the year". Yet what of del Giocondo who stood before him as both model and muse? Anonymous yet increasingly known? Invisible yet present?
Perhaps for all these reasons we perceive "Mona Lisa" as our every volunteer. She is Margaret Marcogliese, here pictured, and Meredith Clark, who prepared the twigs that serve as a mimetic flourish of who we are (twigs for Twigs!). She is our youth consultant, Jessica Laemle, who made possible this spectacular incarnation of the world’s most loved (and yes, tweaked and transformed) painting into charming insignia that we call our own.
Through a thatch of twigs ribboned onto our bag handles and a twist of tissue paper peering from the top, we proffer our portrait of thrift for philanthropy: "Mona Lisa" in small format ($2) and medium ($3). We wish you very glad tidings for the new year. With outstretched hand (Florentine sleeved) and beating heart (fond Renaissance women are we), it seems we give of ourselves. Priceless.
Margaret Marcogliese, devoted Twigs volunteer and long-time Corresponding Secretary, proffers "Mona Lisa" patterned gift wrap.
She sports a scarf from our shelves and invites everyone to the boutique for holiday shopping. "The biggest compliment they give me is that I can wear anything and get away with it," explains Margaret of her superb aesthetic sense. She also has a knack for knowing what would suit someone. . . So be sure to stop in to benefit from her size savvy, color acumen. . . and kind spirit!