Barrel still bank c. 20th century

This little still bank barrel, sitting here in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, is anonymous. The bright red is so cheerful, but then you look closely and it’s worn, you can see the surface underneath. I wonder what the artist was thinking, painting a barrel, maybe longing for days at sea? The gold bands are carefully delineated. The paint looks thick, like frosting on a cake. The overall effect is very joyful. I love imagining this artist in their studio, slowly layering on these strokes of color, pushing paint around like that. There’s something so intimate about that process, something that connects us across time. Each stroke is a little record of their movement, their intention, their doubt. And that’s what painting is, right? A conversation. We look, we respond, we add our own layer of interpretation. There's no single right way to see this barrel, and that’s the beauty of it.