Silver Pitcher c. 1936

John Garay drew this silver pitcher with graphite on paper, and it's got this delicate, precise rendering that makes me think about the quiet focus it must have taken. I imagine Garay sitting there, really looking, maybe squinting a little to catch the light as it curved across the pitcher's surface. You can see the soft gradations he created with the pencil, building up tone to give it a sense of volume and form. It’s like he's coaxing the object into existence, one careful mark at a time. There's a real intimacy in that process, a kind of slow looking that’s almost like touching. I bet he really felt the shape of that pitcher as he drew it, almost as if he were turning it in his hands. And in a way, we get to feel that too, looking at his drawing.