Hair Wreath 1938

This is Samuel Faigin’s ‘Hair Wreath,’ and look at the obsessive detail! I love that it doesn’t have a date. It’s made with watercolor and graphite, but it’s the linear quality that gets me. It feels like the artist is going for some kind of scientific accuracy, yet the image is also totally bonkers. He’s rendered the wreath with a kind of tender care. You know, the delicate strokes of graphite almost feel like he’s tracing each strand of hair. I wonder, what was he thinking about? Was he feeling a sense of loss, of love, or maybe just a fascination with the texture and form of this unusual medium? And the palette is so earthy, like a sepia-toned photograph faded with time. Maybe he collected hair from many people to make the wreath? Perhaps he loved to dwell in obsessive thought; I do! It makes me think about outsider artists like Charles Dellschau, who also made their own kind of order.