Penny Bank c. 1940

Charles Charon made this drawing of a 'Penny Bank' with what looks like colored pencil on paper. I wonder if he was trying to capture its exact color and form, the way the little cube has a peaked roof and a chimney – how it makes you think of a simple, solid home. It's funny, isn't it, how the whole idea of "home" is built into a child's first savings? Did Charon think about the idea of childhood as he made it? I imagine him carefully rendering the details, maybe remembering his own childhood penny bank. The soft green color is so gentle, and the neat lines feel precise yet kind of wobbly, too, suggesting a real, handmade quality. It reminds me a little of Joseph Cornell’s boxes – small worlds containing big dreams, each a personal universe made with simple means. Artists are always in conversation, passing ideas around. And this piece? It leaves me thinking about how art can be a safe place where we think about simple things that have a lot of meaning.