Shaker Basket 1935 - 1942

Alfred H. Smith made this drawing of a Shaker Basket, we don't know exactly when, and with what, but isn't it beautiful? I just love how he's captured a sense of its making with these incredibly subtle tonal shifts. The texture is really something, isn't it? All these tiny strokes, like he's trying to build up the form bit by bit, almost like weaving itself. There's a kind of quiet intensity to it, a sense of someone really looking, really seeing. Look at the way the blue seeps through from the holes in the base, like a little secret hiding in plain sight. That single bit of blue reads almost like an abstract painting. For me, it brings to mind Agnes Martin, in a way, that same devotion to the quiet, the simple, the everyday. It's a reminder that art can be found in the most unexpected places, if you just take the time to look.