Handmade Auger c. 1942

William Frank made this painting of a handmade auger with what looks like graphite or watercolor on paper. Imagine Frank, in his time, eyes focused, hand steady, carefully observing this everyday tool. What was he thinking as he rendered the wood grain of the handle, the cool, grey metal of the bit? Maybe he pondered the ingenuity of its design, its simple elegance born of pure utility. The beige background feels like the color of an old page in a book, or a faded memory. He reduces the tool to its most essential forms, floating it in space, somehow elevating the object. There is something tender about this, like a folk song or a handmade gift, revealing the beauty in the mundane. Artists are always in conversation with each other, across time and space. They borrow, steal, and riff off the ideas of others, forging something new in the process. That's how art evolves, not in isolation, but in dialogue.