Food Chopper 1939

This is Clarence Secor’s “Food Chopper,” painted sometime in the 20th century, probably with watercolors. The off-white of the page makes me think of old things, things stored in attics. Secor's tool hovers there like a memory. It makes me wonder what he saw in it? The blade has a nice curve, like a smile, and the wood handle is so simple. I know as a painter, when I look at a still life object, I think about how to render its texture. The cool smoothness of the metal, the way it would feel in my hand; the rough grain of the wood, its give. What’s it like to try to capture a sense of something real? The tool seems to float quietly on the paper, a testament to simple pleasures and ordinary things.