Windsor Chair c. 1941

Ralph Russell made this drawing of a Windsor Chair sometime in the twentieth century. It's watercolor and graphite on paper. I like imagining Ralph hunched over his desk, carefully observing every little detail of that chair. I bet he was thinking about the light reflecting off the wood, the way the different parts fit together, the shadows. There's a lot of soft beige and tan, just like the wood you’d find in a comfy, lived-in house. The legs splay out like they’re about to dance, and the back is all these little thin lines – like the chair is trying to hug you before you even sit down. It makes me think about how we all look at the same things in different ways, and how artists like Ralph can show us something new about something as simple as a chair. It reminds me that artists are always looking and learning from each other. They see each other's work and make it their own, playing a game of visual telephone through time.