Grandfather Clock c. 1936

This is Ernest A. Towers, Jr.’s Grandfather Clock, drawn with ink on paper. Look at how he renders the texture of the wood. Notice the varied marks, the way the lines curve and flow, they suggest depth and volume without being overly descriptive. It’s as if the clock’s essence is captured through the energy of the lines themselves. I keep coming back to this hatching; the way Towers uses it not just to describe form but to suggest the passage of time, the layers of history embedded in the wood. I think of artists like Durer and his incredible ability to describe texture and form through the language of black and white. There's a dialogue happening here across generations and mediums, a kind of visual conversation about how we perceive and represent the world around us. Art invites us to question, to feel, and to connect with the world in unexpected ways.