Toleware Tray 1935 - 1942

Mildred Ford made this toleware tray with paint, in a way it looks like a technical drawing, but it’s so charming! I can imagine Ford, brush in hand, carefully tracing the curves of the leaves and the plumpness of the apples. Look at how the dark, solid center makes the colors around the rim pop! Each stroke seems deliberate, a loving act of decoration and design. Ford is thinking about form and function, and that combination is so powerful. This piece makes me think about other artists who've explored the intersection of art and everyday life, like the Pattern and Decoration movement or even the humble beauty of Shaker design. Artists are always borrowing and building on each other's ideas across time. The act of painting itself becomes a form of embodied expression, full of ambiguity and multiple meanings.