Shutter Fastener 1935 - 1942

This Shutter Fastener drawing was rendered by an anonymous artist in an unknown year. Looking at this utilitarian object, I imagine the artist carefully plotting each line, the graphite almost whispering onto the page. I love the precision of the rendering—the long, slender shaft giving way to that playful spiral at the top. I wonder, did the artist feel a certain kinship with the blacksmith, appreciating the craft and skill required to shape metal into such elegant forms? I can imagine them, pausing to consider the light as it glances off the metallic surface, trying to capture its coolness and hardness with their pencil. This reminds me of some of Charles Sheeler's precise, clean-lined paintings of industrial objects—there's a similar celebration of form and function. It’s almost as if both artists are saying, "Look, even the most ordinary things can be beautiful if you really pay attention." And that’s something I think about a lot in my own work—how to find the extraordinary in the everyday.