Lap Desk c. 1936

Curator: Ah, the 'Lap Desk' from around 1936, rendered in pencil on paper by Edna C. Rex. You can see her subtle use of shading giving a three-dimensional effect. What catches your eye first about it? Editor: The stark simplicity! It’s as if this desk contains an entire world of potential stories, right? A splash of emerald green contrasting against what looks like rosewood finish. It just feels intimate, almost secretive. Curator: Intimacy and secrecy, certainly fitting descriptors. Rex made this as part of the Index of American Design, a WPA initiative where artists documented decorative arts and folk art objects to create a record of the nation's material culture during the Depression. Editor: Documenting beauty amidst such widespread hardship... Isn't there something quietly revolutionary about that? This little desk suddenly becomes an emblem of resilience and hope. Curator: Absolutely. It represents a tangible connection to craft, a commitment to preserving aspects of everyday life for posterity. Each meticulous pencil line demonstrates the quiet dignity embedded in such objects. And the perspective drawing in the lower left gives a nice behind-the-scenes glimpse. Editor: I can imagine someone lovingly unfolding letters, writing a passionate declaration, or even sketching out subversive doodles inside it. All that untold narratives captured in a quiet box. There is such powerful invitation in what is being unsaid or not immediately present in what she decided to share. Curator: Indeed. The blank green writing surface does present itself as something of a stage upon which narratives play out. I wonder, too, if it unconsciously invites its viewers to envision a counter-narrative, something contrary to the bleak social realities of the era it was created within? Editor: Precisely! In some way, then, isn’t the real brilliance not in what Rex depicted, but what she evoked? That sense of both melancholy and profound creative longing just hums. Curator: An object designed to both contain and create worlds, rendered during an era in desperate need of both. It feels oddly appropriate somehow. Editor: Yes, it gives new resonance to the power of the humble lap desk!