Puppet 1935 - 1942

This is George File's Puppet, probably made with watercolor, though when exactly, nobody knows. File seems to be interested in the textures of things. The wispy thinness of the paper allows the colors to bleed into each other. It's so subtle, it's hard to tell where one color ends and another begins. I keep thinking about that face, those clown cheeks, and that bright red smile. It's all surface with the faintest hint of depth. It's both playful and slightly unsettling. The whole image is washed in this gentle, dreamlike quality. I think of Redon, another master of color and mood. Both artists create worlds that invite us to wander and wonder, without ever quite giving us all the answers. That's what I love about art, it's never really finished, is it? It's always evolving in our minds, changing with each viewing.