Salt Shaker c. 1936

Here's Henry Meyer's drawing of a salt shaker. It's so delicately rendered in graphite, and you can see the artist taking his time. I imagine the process of drawing being similar to the care taken to produce a manufactured object: the clean lines, the measurements, the attention to detail. He's trying to show us how it all fits together, the elegance of a well-designed object. It makes me think about how much attention we give to everyday things. The salt shaker is so ordinary, but here it is, rendered with such love and precision. I'm also fascinated by how Meyers has given us these technical drawings in tandem with the object: here's the front, the side, the top. It makes me think about art and its capacity to show us the world in a new way. Art helps us to see things we might otherwise overlook or take for granted.