Dress (Pattern) c. 1936

This drawing, *Dress (Pattern)*, is by Dorothy Gernon. It's undated, but she lived from 1885 to 1995, so we can imagine her making this in the mid to late 20th century. Look at these lines: so tentative, like a spider web, yet so decisive in their mapping of form! You can see her notations, these instructions, and imagine her process of puzzling it all out, the fitting and refitting, the constant adjustments to get it just right. It’s like she’s thinking aloud on paper, almost like automatic writing! And it's such a fragile, delicate thing, barely there, yet so full of information. I think of other artist's pattern paintings - maybe she was looking at those. Artists are always in conversation, drawing from each other, inspiring one another, like a lineage of looking and making. I like how a simple drawing on paper can open up a whole world of imagination.