Marionette (Detail) c. 1937

Elmer Weise made this drawing of a marionette, and I find it so charming! It makes me want to pick up a brush. Look how Weise has depicted the wooden texture and brought it to life with fluid strokes of color. The marionette's face emerges, and the dark curls cascade down its head. The surface isn't flat; it has these subtle shifts in tone and texture. I can almost feel the smooth grain of the wood. I wonder what Weise was thinking when he painted this. Was he playing with this marionette? Maybe he was drawn to the way light hit the carved surface? Was it a way for him to capture a fleeting moment, or was it an exploration of character? Paintings like this are part of a conversation across time. Artists are always responding to and building upon the ideas of those who came before. It’s like a game of telephone where each artist adds their own inflection. What I love most about painting is how it embraces ambiguity and uncertainty. It’s a space where we can explore and question, rather than define.