Doorway c. 1936

Jerome Hoxie made this drawing of a doorway with ink on paper. The marks remind me of architectural renderings, but also have a funky folk art vibe. The hatching and cross-hatching describe form and shadow with an almost obsessive energy. Look how the door is framed by these delicate panes of glass and elaborate molding. I love the little patch of grassy scratch marks at the bottom that suggest a kind of unkempt nature creeping up to the formality of the building. Is it an invitation or a barrier? Maybe both. The drawing looks like a portal, somewhere between a dream and a diagram. It makes you wonder what other worlds Hoxie was imagining. Like Forrest Bess, Hoxie’s art beckons us toward the unknown, reminding us that the truest art often resides in the questions, not the answers.