Overcoat, T. Jefferson's c. 1936

Syrena Swanson made this watercolor of ‘Overcoat, T. Jefferson’s’. I love the flat matte quality of it, where it looks as though the paper has just absorbed the pigment, like it’s part of the thing itself. You know, sometimes it's the limitations that give a piece its voice. The thing about depicting clothes is that you’re always kind of painting a person, or at least, the *idea* of one. The way Swanson articulates the fall of the fabric and those simple, dark shadows implies a wearer, with a certain carriage and stature. Notice the slight variations in the black – it’s not just one flat tone. The subtle shifts, especially around the collar, suggest a velvety texture, something almost touchable. It's as if we are looking at a kind of formal portrait, something like Manet might have painted, if he’d been into clothing design. And it makes you think about all those artists, like Warhol, who treated everything like a portrait. Ultimately, art's not about answers; it's more about starting conversations.