Pitcher c. 1941

Joseph Mitry made this drawing of a pitcher, in which careful, thin pencil lines wash over the object in horizontal strokes, in order to show the curvature of the glass. I’m imagining Mitry, who lived to be a whopping 140 years old, sitting with this pitcher, turning it in the light. It’s meditative, right? How the light moves through the vessel and makes it glow. I think he’s asking himself, “How do I capture that?” And he’s experimenting with how to do it. He doesn’t want it to be a photorealistic endeavor, but rather, something that captures the essence of the pitcher and the light. Look at the way the pencil dances around the handle! There’s an openness, an embrace of the unknown, a trust in the process. It’s a reminder that art is as much about the journey as it is about the destination. And that the simple things that surround us are often the most worthy of contemplation.