Plane for Leveling Wood c. 1936

Lena Nastasi’s watercolour, "Plane for Leveling Wood," is a simple and unassuming image. But it got me thinking about how a humble tool could be transformed into art. I imagine Nastasi carefully mixing her washes, building up the tones to capture the wood grain and metallic sheen. Maybe she was thinking about her grandfather, or a carpenter she once knew. Look at how the colour pools around the edges of the plane, almost bleeding into the white of the paper, lending the object a sense of weight. It's as if the plane has been sitting there for years, absorbing the light and shadows of the workshop. The way the subject is framed puts me in mind of Giorgio Morandi's still lifes, where the everyday becomes imbued with a sense of quiet contemplation. It’s a reminder that art can be found anywhere, even in the most unexpected places, and how artists are in an ongoing conversation across time.