Shoemaker's Bench c. 1941

Pearl Davis rendered this Shoemaker's Bench in a drawing with graphite and colored pencil. This drawing depicts a utilitarian object, elevated. The tools of shoemaking are present, yet the bench is still devoid of its craftsman. The shoe itself carries symbolic weight. From ancient civilizations to the Brothers Grimm fairytale, Cinderella, shoes can represent status, identity, and transformation. Consider the empty shoe. In vanitas paintings, discarded footwear hints at mortality. This image evokes a similar sense of absence, a pause in the narrative of labor. The open drawer can be seen as a symbol of revelation, of exposing inner workings, while simultaneously suggesting hidden depths yet to be explored. Davis captures the enduring quality of human craft. This bench, frozen in time, reminds us that the mundane objects of our lives carry immense cultural and personal weight. The bench may be stationary, yet the human drive to create, mend, and build endures across generations.