Pilaster with Holy Water-Font & Arch Below Choir Loft c. 1936

Howard H. Sherman made this watercolor drawing of a Pilaster with Holy Water-Font sometime between 1855 and 1955. Look at the light bouncing off the tiles and the strange arching forms that lead up to the choir loft. I am thinking about what Sherman may have been thinking when he made this drawing. It looks like he was an architect because it looks like the drawing is to scale. Perhaps he was looking to document this place. Maybe it was a place he loved, and maybe he wanted to remember all of its architectural details. I like how he rendered the pattern of blue and green checks—it reminds me of a kind of domestic interior. The paint isn’t too thick, and that makes the drawing look precise. These architectural details also remind me of other artists, like Agnes Martin, who also worked with geometric shapes. Artists are always riffing off each other; they are in an ongoing conversation. Sherman's painting is another example of how creativity inspires new ideas, revealing multiple ways of seeing and understanding the world.