I Am an Amateur of Velocipedes 1941

This drawing, "I Am an Amateur of Velocipedes," is by Leonora Carrington and who knows when it was made exactly, but what a title, right? I can imagine Carrington hunched over this work, her pen scratching at the paper, conjuring up this strange vehicle and its passengers. It’s like something cobbled together from dreams and folklore. Look at the cross-hatching, building up volume and shadow, giving the figures a sculptural presence. The lines are so delicate, yet they create these solid forms. You can almost feel the texture of the paper, the way the ink bleeds slightly into it. I think of other surrealists like Remedios Varo, who also created these otherworldly, mechanical beings. There's this sense of invention, of creating a new reality through the act of drawing. It makes me wonder what Carrington was thinking about as she made it, what stories she was trying to tell. These artists are always talking to each other, across time, inspiring each other to imagine new possibilities. It’s amazing.