Sugar Bowl with Cover c. 1936

John Tarantino made this drawing of a Sugar Bowl with Cover, and, imagining him at work, I see a dance between precision and flow, where the clear lines meet the soft swirls of pink and white. It’s like he’s trying to capture something fleeting, the way light moves through glass, or the way a memory shifts shape in your mind. The colors here are delicate, almost like a whisper, but the composition itself is so solid, so grounded. I wonder what Tarantino was thinking as he rendered the reflections and refractions with such care. Was he thinking about the sweetness of the sugar it would contain, or maybe just the beauty of the object itself? It’s a quiet piece, but it speaks volumes about the artist’s attention and skill.