Weather Vane c. 1940

This drawing of a weather vane by Roger Deats looks like it was made with pencil and colored pencil, maybe even watercolor, in the 20th century. It's all about the line work. Everything seems built through a patient working of tone. I love how Deats is using the materials to describe the figure. Look at the dress, it looks like it's rippling in the wind. The artist is taking something functional, a weather vane, and making it playful. It reminds me that art is often about taking the ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary through a simple act of attention. It's this kind of thing, the humble turned into something rich and strange, that makes me think of other self-taught artists like Joseph Yoakum, who could make landscapes filled with emotion with just a few simple strokes. Art is a conversation across time, an ongoing invitation to see the world anew.