Lottery Wheel 1935 - 1942

James Lawson made this 'Lottery Wheel' drawing, with ink, I'm guessing, at some point. It has that direct, slightly off-kilter quality you see in works where the pure need to describe something takes over. Look at these lines, how they define the wheel and its stand. There's something really beautiful about the frankness of the marks, the way they don't fuss too much but still manage to give you a sense of the object's form and function. And the symmetry! It's almost there, but not quite, which gives the whole thing a really human feel. It reminds me a bit of some of the technical drawings of forgotten machinery, things that capture a specific moment in time, a certain kind of optimistic, slightly naive view of progress. Artmaking is like that wheel, you know? You put something into motion, and you never quite know where it's going to land.