Figurehead c. 1938

Frances Cohen made this drawing, Figurehead, sometime in the 20th century. You can see the process and how it came into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Cohen. I imagine her thinking about color and line, layering them together. Maybe she made marks and rubbed them out, layering one idea on top of the other, building up the surface. I'm thinking of that red-brown color and how it's used on the base and as an accent on the model's dress and shoes. She maybe mixed colors and observed the way they blended together, staining the paper. That single blue ribbon communicates a feeling, an intention, a meaning! I think this piece can relate to Cohen's wider practice and body of work, as well as other painters who made portraits. Artists are in an ongoing conversation, an exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed readings.