Tomahawk Pipe 1935

On November 6th, 1935, Mary Berner made this coloured pencil drawing of two Tomahawk pipes. It’s a delicate rendering, careful and precise. The hand of the artist lingers over the detailed design work of the pipes. I can feel Berner’s gentle touch as she coaxes these images onto the page, building up the forms through careful observation and shading. There is a sensitivity to the materials, wood and brass. The pale, washed-out tones give the drawing a dreamlike quality as though the artist is re-membering something precious and fleeting. You can see these renderings connect with traditions of folk art and craft, where observation becomes a form of honoring. Drawings like these remind us that image-making is a way of remembering and preserving cultural heritage, that art is a form of embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty and allowing multiple interpretations.