Plane c. 1939

Mary Hansen made this drawing of a plane, a woodworking tool, sometime in the 20th century. She's used graphite, or maybe watercolor, and built up subtle layers to describe its form. Look at how Hansen renders the grain of the wood, a gentle dance of light and shadow. I imagine her patiently building these marks, carefully observing the way the light catches on the surface of the object. The drawing is not overly precious. The soft, almost blurred quality of the marks suggests a reverence for the handmade and the imperfect. It's a celebration of the beauty found in the everyday. This reminds me of Giorgio Morandi’s still lifes, where he turned humble objects into meditative studies of form and light. Hansen, like Morandi, finds poetry in simplicity, and reminds us that art is about seeing and feeling. It’s not about grand gestures or perfect representation, but about the quiet act of looking, and the mark-making that follows.