Plate 16: Wheat Sheaf, Altar Panel: From Portfolio "Spanish Colonial Designs of New Mexico" 1935 - 1942

This is a plate, number 16, from a portfolio of Spanish Colonial designs of New Mexico, it’s an anonymous work and so the artist is unknown, and it's done with what looks like watercolor. The whole thing is nesting squares, each one a slightly different color. And then in the middle, a sheaf of wheat is sitting in a vase of sorts, which itself has a kind of curlicue. It has got such a charming quality, the painting, and it makes you wonder about the hand that made this, and what that person was thinking? Did they even think of themselves as an artist, or were they just someone who was really, really good at rendering the world in paint. Someone who had a good eye and a good hand. One can imagine them thinking, “How can I make this corner work?” Or “What color will make this other color sing?” And that’s just it: every artist is having that conversation. That's why painting is, for me, a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and allows for multiple interpretations.