Maple Sugar Mold c. 1938

Robert Calvin made this watercolor of a maple sugar mold sometime in the 20th century. Look at the way he’s rendered the wood grain. I can almost smell the sawdust and sweet sap. The artist really took his time here, letting the pigment pool in places, and leaving other areas almost untouched. Imagine Calvin carefully carving the wood and the satisfaction he must have felt when the two halves fit together perfectly. The more I look, the more I feel like I could just reach out and touch it. It’s so quiet and reverent, like a portrait of a beloved family heirloom. You can feel the influence of folk art here, in the way the artist has taken a mundane object and turned it into something extraordinary. Artists are always in conversation with one another, across time and space.