Watercolor 1908

This watercolor was made on April 26, 1905 by an anonymous artist and it depicts a Navajo textile. It's all about trying to capture this other thing: a weaving. I love how it feels like they were really trying to *see* the thing, like, what does it look like up close? You can see this kind of obsessive care in how they painted the tassels. I can imagine them thinking, how do I show that fluffiness with just a brush? It makes me think about how artists are always looking at each other's work. Like, this anonymous artist was looking at a weaver's work, and now we're here looking at the watercolor. It’s a whole chain of looking and making! Painting, like weaving, is such a physical thing; it's about getting your hands dirty and working through a problem. And both invite us to slow down and really see.