Seward's follies

Yes, that's a sculpture based on Van Gogh's "The Landlady," and the cavorting couple are Robert's cousin Clara and her boyfriend Philip.

That sculpture, along with a two-story version of "American Gothic" outside and a half-dozen pieces inside, make up Seward Johnson's "Icons" show at the Art and History Museum in the old Custom House. The idea is to present iconic art pieces in 3-D that you can get inside and interact with.

In many ways, Johnson, who lives near the Southernmost Point here, was scratching a kitsch, but it's a fun show. I mean, where else can you give a hooter honk to a Naked Maja, complete with beaded curtain at the installation's entrance, or dandle the pearl earring on a Vermeer (I gave her a classic rabbit-ears), or mug it up by trying to make your smile inscrutable?

Quite a full day, in the usual Key West way -- shopping for dirty T-shirts on Duval, dining with the chickens, ogling Fast-Buck Freddie's, having drinks with a Masterpiece Theater producer and being warned by Gail the Tango Dancer that we had a bad tail light.

Nothing out of the ordinary.