Hair Brooch and Ring c. 1936

Curator: What strikes you first when you look at this, the *Hair Brooch and Ring*, a watercolor and drawing on paper by William P. Shearwood from around 1936? Editor: Well, there's a definite stillness to it. They're static objects on a very blank page. But also, there is such fine, exacting detail—somebody wanted to truly record these. Curator: Absolutely. In the context of the time, mourning jewelry containing the hair of a loved one was a common practice. This artwork gives us such an intimate peek into both fashion and culture, you know? Preserving remembrance and all. Editor: Ah, the Victorian sentimentality, I'm getting that strongly now. Knowing that the jewelry features hair, and the care in depicting them is... it feels both loving and a little unsettling. Like keeping a memento mori close. But more intimate somehow. Did only women wear it? Curator: Jewelry such as brooches was not restricted to any gender. Its ubiquity reminds us of its vital role in signaling social status and commemoration across genders in past eras. Editor: True! Thinking about the labor that went into making the physical objects versus making *this*, a sort of drawing from observation—both have labor and meaning attached to them, a double encoding if you will. Curator: It makes me ponder, though, the relationship to photography in all this. Photography was common by the time of this work, so why depict such everyday artifacts in this medium? Watercolor, particularly, allows the expression of unique textures and details! Editor: Hmmm. Well, maybe the hand-done-ness adds another layer, like a personal filter over the cold lens of a camera. Someone took the time, not just to remember, but to *see* and re-create the beloved object. And now we can see it, too, generations later. Curator: What I'll really take away today is just this glimpse into the quiet, yet potent symbolism embedded within seemingly everyday things. So delicate! Editor: Yes, objects holding stories, interpreted, represented, reframed, endlessly resonant. Very cool indeed!