Earrings c. 1937

Grace Halpin made this drawing of earrings on paper, and its spareness is part of its charm. Look at how she’s put these simple lines down, mostly outlines, to show us not only the form of the earrings, but also how the light might play on their surfaces. The drawing is like a recipe, or a plan. See how she gives us this little scale in the middle, so we can know the real size? And the extra sketch of the hook, as if to say, ‘here’s how it all fits together’? The color is muted, just these gentle washes of gold and brown, as if the drawing is aged, like the earrings themselves might be antique. The whole thing has a kind of quiet confidence. It reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin, in the way that it does so much with so little. It’s this humble drawing, and yet it captures something essential about beauty and design. It feels like a quiet conversation across time, between artists and makers, about how we see and how we make.