CORNING, NY.- The Corning Museum of Glass last week unveiled its annual Rakow Commission: "Rey del Cenote", by Panamanian artist Isabel De Obaldía. The distinctive sand-cast sculpture by De Obaldía draws on ancient and tribal art. The title of her commission refers to the crocodile as the king of the cenote, which is a deep natural well. In ancient times, sacrifices to the gods often took place at a cenote. “De Obaldía’s large, totemic animals, colored with glass powders and engraved with raw cuts and gashes, have a powerful, almost shamanic presence,” says Tina Oldknow, the Museum’s curator of modern glass. De Obaldía was trained as a painter. Her work reflects that of a long line of modern “primitive” painters, from Paul Gauguin to Diego Rivera, who explored the art of ancient and tribal cultures. Her paintings and sculptures incorporate symbols and ideas from ancient Panamanian, Colombian, and Co