Sugar Bowl c. 1937

This is a drawing of a sugar bowl by John Tarantino, and there's a luminous quality to it, achieved with graphite on paper. It's like the sugar bowl is glowing from within. I can imagine the artist thinking about the surface of the metal. What is it like to draw something so reflective? How do you capture light with graphite? Is the drawing about light, or the object itself? Tarantino has given the bowl a floral motif. The leaves and grapes add another layer of complexity to the drawing. It's an interesting dance between object, light, and surface, and between observation, representation, and imagination. It makes me want to pick up a pencil and try to capture the way light dances on a surface. Artists are always in conversation, aren't they?