Pump Valve and Sucker 1939

This is Alexander Anderson's drawing of a Pump Valve and Sucker, made in 1895. It's like a quiet poem about materials, right? Look at how Anderson uses watercolor to mimic the texture of wood. The grain, those subtle variations in tone, it's all about the process of seeing and translating. I mean, it's almost like he's thinking about the thing as he draws it, really feeling for the wood. And that metal band around the middle – see how it’s rendered? It’s solid, industrial, but softened, somehow humanized by the imperfections of Anderson’s hand. The whole thing has this feeling of being both representational and abstract, existing in a space between the real object and its artistic interpretation. Like the work of Charles Sheeler, maybe. Who knew a pump valve could be so… contemplative?