Figurehead for Ship "Marcia Allen" c. 1938

Molly Bodenstein made this watercolour painting of a figurehead in the 1930s as part of the Federal Art Project. I love to imagine the back-and-forth between Bodenstein and the image as she painted. What happens when you make a copy of a copy, like a game of telephone? I wonder, was she thinking about this woman’s journey on the ship, or her own journey as a painter? The blues of the bow contrast with the yellows of her ornate headwear, all floating above the paper. It’s not quite surreal, but it feels a little uncanny. Look at the texture and detail in the dress and the hair. It's kind of amazing. The act of painting always involves a conversation across time, where artists are in an ongoing exchange of ideas, inspiring one another's creativity, each copy inviting a different interpretation.