Saddle c. 1937

Ranka S. Woods made this "Saddle" out of watercolor and graphite on paper. Woods’s choice of media is intriguing: watercolor and graphite are more often associated with preliminary sketches, rather than the depiction of a finished product. This challenges our expectations of what constitutes a final work of art. The saddle itself would have involved highly skilled labor, from tanning and cutting the leather to the tooling of its surface decoration. The combination of supple material and meticulous technique speaks to a culture of horsemanship, where the saddle is both a functional object and a signifier of status. The saddle's imagery, carefully captured by Woods, emphasizes a traditional craft associated with the American West. Yet, it does so through a medium that quietly elevates it to the realm of fine art. This piece blurs the lines between representation and reality, between the practical and the aesthetic. The humble materials and the artist's careful touch serve to highlight the cultural significance and the labor embedded within this iconic object.