Spectacles 1941

Dorothy Dwin made this drawing of "Spectacles" with graphite on paper, and what strikes me is how much seeing, and art making, is a process of trying to clarify something that may be blurry. The wispy lines and the delicate shading almost feel like a kind of hesitant exploration, a looking and re-looking to really see. The frames of these glasses, are drawn with such care, with a lot of attention paid to the small mechanisms by which the glasses fold, and the way the light hits the lenses. It's not photorealism, it's something more tender. Dwin’s work has this unassuming quality, but it’s so full of quiet observation. It reminds me a little of Agnes Martin's drawings, where the simplest forms become a vehicle for something deeper, a meditation. It’s not about a grand statement, but about the subtle act of seeing and recording, and how that act, can bring us closer to the world.