Afghan Carriage Robe c. 1937

J. Howard Iams made this study of an Afghan Carriage Robe sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, we're not exactly sure when. It’s a flat image, but it has a funny way of trying to show us what it's like to touch the real thing. The artist's hand is evident in the way the colors are laid down, like each section is a new experiment. The pixelated horse is really something, isn't it? It's like the artist is using this traditional craft as a way to build something new, but also to look at how an image is constructed. Check out the red sections, how they seem to fold and drape. It’s not just about what the robe looks like, but what it feels like. And then there's the horse – each tiny stitch adding up to something bigger. I can't help but think about how someone like Faith Ringgold uses similar strategies to tell a story. Both artists are showing us that art is really just a long conversation. There's no right or wrong answer, just different ways of seeing and feeling.