Wafer or Waffle Iron c. 1936

Richard Taylor made this drawing of a Wafer or Waffle Iron, we don’t know when, with what looks like graphite on paper. I love the way he's not trying to be too precious with it. There’s an interesting kind of awkwardness about the whole thing. You can see the texture of the paper, it's got tooth, and the pencil work is kind of rough, almost like he’s sketching in a notebook. Look at the way he’s rendered the metal, those little lines and smudges, it's like he’s trying to capture the feel of the thing, not just what it looks like. There’s a spare, almost diagrammatic rendering of the handle to the left, and I think this adds to the charm. It reminds me a bit of some of the drawings by Alex Katz, who also has this way of making the ordinary feel kind of special. Ultimately, art is like this ongoing conversation. It's always questioning what we think we know, and what we think we see.