Comb and Brush Rack c. 1936

Here is a drawing of a Comb and Brush Rack by James M. Lawson. Isn’t it funny how the most ordinary things can become so compelling when you draw them? I’m looking at the crisscrossing wooden struts, all held together with these little silver dots which I guess are rivets. I can imagine the artist carefully rendering each one, trying to get the shadows just right to give it that three-dimensional pop. I wonder what Lawson was thinking as he drew this. Was it just a technical exercise, a way to hone his skills? Or did he see something more in this simple object? Maybe he appreciated the humble beauty of everyday life, the way things are put together, the functional elegance of a well-made rack. It reminds me a bit of some of the early 20th-century precisionists, those artists who found inspiration in factories and machines. There’s a similar attention to detail, a similar celebration of form and structure. But here, it’s all much more intimate, more personal. We’re all just trying to make sense of the world, one brushstroke, one line at a time.