Plate - "New Jersey Arms" c. 1936

This eight by ten inch plate depicting the ‘New Jersey Arms’ was made by Helmut Hiatt, sometime between 1855 and 1995. I find myself thinking about this image, how the artist printed the plate and brought the scene into being. It’s a bit like building up layers in a painting, a careful kind of labor. The classical figures, the horse, all that detail, and the state name inscribed below. It makes me wonder what Hiatt was thinking about as they worked. What did New Jersey mean to them? The artist’s conversation with history—the figures echo classical sculptures but are rendered on a domestic object. This melding of high and low feels deeply human. And this is how artists talk to each other, across time, through images and objects.