Fire Shovel c. 1937

Marie Famularo made this drawing of a fire shovel with graphite and colored pencil sometime in the twentieth century, and it's fascinating to see something so everyday given such careful attention. I find myself drawn to the way the light is rendered on the golden handle, there's a real sense of volume and form, and then in contrast the shovel head is presented in multiple views; a diagrammatic line drawing sits next to a shaded, three-quarter view. The whole composition has the feeling of an instruction manual, but for what? The artist's hand is present, but concealed by the nature of the work; we can't see the gesture, but rather the result. There's a dialogue here with artists like Vija Celmins, who also examined everyday objects with a forensic gaze, but here the slight awkwardness of the drawing gives the object a touching quality, elevating it beyond the purely functional. Art isn't just about what we see, but how we see, and Famularo offers us a chance to reconsider the beauty in the mundane.