Toy Bank: Bird Feeding its Young 1935 - 1942

This anonymous drawing depicts a 'Toy Bank: Bird Feeding its Young', and right away I'm struck by how the artist used watercolor to capture the weight and texture of what looks like a cast metal object. There’s something so tender and, at the same time, kind of creepy about the scene – the way the bird is perched, almost protectively, over its young. I love how the artist focused on the material aspects of the bank itself. The way they built up the color, layer by layer, to mimic the aged surface, it’s gorgeous. Look closely and you can see how the colors are mixed wet on the page. It reminds me a little of the work of Joseph Yoakum, whose visionary landscapes often have a similar kind of intuitive and process-driven feel. With both artists, it's clear that they weren't trying to create some illusion of reality but instead were much more interested in just the act of image making itself.