Masthead Light c. 1936

Florence Huston made this line drawing of a Masthead Light. It’s all in the hatching, isn’t it? The way those tiny, disciplined lines build up to suggest form. Huston is using such an economy of means to describe this object, and it’s fascinating how this kind of repetitive mark making can almost become a kind of meditative process. I find myself thinking about Agnes Martin, and her interest in the subtle modulations of the grid. It’s amazing how much information can be communicated through the variations in line weight and density, isn’t it? The way the light falls on those rounded forms inside the lamp, for example. It’s all created through the careful accumulation of these little marks. You could almost imagine her working away at it, day after day. The humble mark builds form, which builds significance. Perhaps this drawing is Huston's quiet homage to the light source, and its own quiet illumination of a sailor's path.