Wedding Dress c. 1937

Mary E. Humes made this drawing of a wedding dress with pencil on paper. I imagine she’s carefully studying and recording every fold and seam. There’s something so touching about the dedication and attention to detail in this drawing. You can see the delicate lines that define the shape of the dress, the soft shading that gives it volume. It's almost like she’s trying to capture not just the appearance but the very essence of this gown. The additional, fainter outline of another dress, feels like she is mulling over ideas, changing her mind. As a painter, I think about the physicality of the medium, the texture, the surface. I imagine what it must have been like for Humes to create this tender image, what she was thinking about as she worked. This drawing feels like an intimate conversation between the artist and the dress. It also feels like a conversation between the two dresses on the page! Artists are in an ongoing exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. For me, painting and drawing embrace ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meanings.