January 14, 1957 - Reported in the Evening star [here]. Weeping Madonna - This nearly life-sized face of a Madonna, carved from driftwood by Miss Clara Bass of Forest Knolls, Calif., is causing a stir at the Marin Art Gallery.

First, a tiny tear appeared at the inner corner of the right eye and soon the thick substance flowed down the length of the face. Miss Bass says she may have hit a resin duct in the wood and the sap started running when the work was hung in the warm gallery.

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*About the artist [here] and [here] Clara Phildius Simon Bass was born in Missouri on Dec. 4, 1896. Clara Simon grew up in Salt Lake City. After earning a BA degree at UC Berkeley, she studied at the CSFA and ASL in NYC. She then taught art in the San Francisco Bay area until an illness in 1952. While convalescing in her home in Marin County, she began to carve in the native woods abounding there. She then opened a studio in Forest Knolls and began painting and sculpting full time. Mrs. Bass produced artworks there until her demise on April 3, 1996.