Hair Brooch and Bracelet c. 1936

William P. Shearwood rendered this hair brooch and bracelet with watercolor in an act of preservation and documentation. Look closely at the braiding, how it kinks and turns; that level of detail suggests this wasn’t just an exercise in observation but a translation of something deeply tactile. The artist’s hand seems to linger on the material aspects of these objects: the lustre of the gold settings, the sheen of the hair itself. There's a tenderness to the process of describing the loops and knots, the way they catch the light, that speaks to the intimate connection between the wearer and the keepsake. This reminds me of those surrealist object studies where the everyday becomes uncanny, and how similar images exist in the work of outsider artists who transform personal experience into something universally resonant. Ultimately, it’s a study in how we hold onto memory, transforming it into something tangible, wearable, and enduring.