Ship's Compass c. 1937

This is Magnus S. Fossum's "Ship's Compass," a drawing on paper that, for me, is as much about the idea of navigation as it is about the thing itself. Look at the way Fossum renders the metal of the compass housing. It's not just brown; there are streaks of verdigris green, hints of rust-red, a whole history of being at sea, caught in those marks. It's so different from the precise, almost clinical line drawings of the compass's shape below. That contrast makes me think about how we try to map the world, to make sense of it with our charts and diagrams, but the real world is always messier, more complex, full of unpredictable color and texture. You know, it reminds me of the work of Agnes Martin, in a weird way – that same interest in systems, but also an understanding of the beauty in imperfection. Art is a conversation, right?