Grandfather Clock c. 1936

Ernest A. Towers Jr. made this drawing of a grandfather clock. It’s all line, line, line. He’s thinking through form, proportion, and ornament. I feel like I’m looking over his shoulder as he works. He's working out the details, from the finial on top to the ornate carving at the bottom. You can imagine him, pencil in hand, figuring out how all the pieces fit together to construct something solid and reliable, but also beautiful. I wonder if Towers was thinking about the passage of time as he drew the clock. Or maybe he was just focused on the challenge of representing it on paper, each line a tiny increment, like seconds ticking by. All those lines create a world of their own on the page. Painters and artists have been having these conversations across time. Each of them inspires the creativity of future generations. It's never about a fixed, definitive reading. We can all look, consider and find new meanings.