Reel 1935 - 1942

Florence Truelson made this watercolor and graphite drawing of a turned reel, a wooden stand with pegs, at a time unknown. The rendering has such tender line work and washes of color. You can almost see Truelson’s hand moving over the paper, figuring out how to make a three-dimensional thing appear on a flat surface. It’s like watching a sculptor coaxing form from a block of wood, only with a brush. The color is mostly green, but with surprising flashes of gold, and cream. Look closely at the base, where Truelson captured the way light hits the rounded surface. The shadow and highlight gives it a strange sense of depth. Also, see how the wooden pegs jut out, defying the flatness of the picture plane. I'm reminded of Charles Sheeler's precisionist drawings, and like his work, this piece celebrates the beauty of utilitarian objects through careful observation and rendering. It's a quiet, unassuming artwork, but it invites us to see the world with fresh eyes, finding beauty in the everyday. Art is, after all, a way of seeing, not just a thing to be seen.