Bread Fruit, Hawaii 1935

John Melville Kelly made this print, “Bread Fruit, Hawaii,” and it’s just full of this tranquil, almost meditative vibe. Look at how the woman gently holds the breadfruit, cradling it. What could she be thinking? I imagine Kelly, in his process, was thinking about tradition and the beauty of everyday life in Hawaii. The way he's used light and shadow gives the scene depth, but it’s also kind of flat and stylized. It reminds me of the woodblock prints of Gauguin; he was also interested in capturing a sense of the exotic. But Kelly’s got his own thing going on, too. You can almost feel the weight of the fruit in her hands, the texture of the leaves around her. And the composition itself is interesting, how the curves of the fruit echo the curves of her body. Artists are always borrowing and building on each other's ideas, and it's interesting to see Kelly in this lineage, finding his own way to express his vision.