Basque c. 1936

This is Gladys Cook’s Basque, made with pencil and crayon on paper, and honestly, it's so direct, so unpretentious, it's like a blueprint for a dream dress. The crayon work is simple, but the way the colours layer up in those plaid lines! There’s an energy in the repetition. It’s not about perfection, it’s about getting lost in the making, the process of imagining this garment into being. Look at the bare minimum of the skirt, just a suggestion, a curve, but the bodice is where all the thought is, a density of line and colour. It’s like Cook knew exactly where the eye would go, what details matter. It reminds me a bit of some of Charles Burchfield's studies, not in subject matter, but in the kind of intense focus on the everyday. This piece embraces the beauty of the provisional, the sketch, the open-ended question. It's a reminder that art isn't about answers, it's about the conversation.