Windmill Counterbalance c. 1938

This is Wilbur M Rice's, "Windmill Counterbalance", it’s a drawing, and it looks like it was made with graphite. It's got this rooster-like shape, almost like a weather vane, right? But instead of pointing, maybe it's balancing something? I'm wondering if Wilbur was outside sketching this, maybe feeling the wind himself. I can imagine him squinting, trying to capture that metallic glint with his pencil. What's cool is how he uses these really simple lines to give us a sense of volume. See how the lines curve around the tail? It makes it feel round, solid. Maybe Wilbur was thinking about how we see things, how a few marks can trick our brains into seeing a whole form. It reminds me a bit of some early modernists. They were always playing with perception. And I love how Wilbur is part of that conversation, even if he didn't know it!