Trivet c. 1941

Edward Bashaw made this drawing of a trivet, that's a stand for hot dishes or pots, using graphite on paper. It’s all in shades of gray with ornamental foliage. The drawing is so detailed, so descriptive, you can almost feel the cast iron, or whatever the trivet's made of. I wonder what was going through Bashaw’s mind as he worked on this. Was he interested in the object itself or was he maybe thinking about the process of making the image? The way the light hits it? You know, sometimes the most mundane objects, when looked at closely, can offer us a whole universe of lines and shapes and, well, meaning. Look at how he made those spiraling forms on either side. So precise, yet each one is different, with its own little quirks. It makes me think of the work of other artists, like Charles Burchfield, who found something extraordinary in the everyday. I think there is something so deeply human about trying to capture the world around us and, in doing so, connecting to all the artists who came before, and those who will come after.