Scissors c. 1936

Roberta Elvis made this painting of scissors with watercolor on paper. The way the paint is handled here, it's all about the process. You can see the washes and layers, nothing hidden, just building up the image. Looking closely, the metal of the scissors isn't just gray, it's got browns and blues mixed in, giving it a real sense of depth. See that spot right where the blades cross? There's this little explosion of darker pigment, it's like Elvis is zooming in on the mechanics of the tool. And then there's that tiny detail of the pin, labeled ‘approximately actual size’, it’s like she’s saying, “This is real, this matters." It puts me in mind of some of the precision that you see in Durer's botanical studies, but without that hyper-realism. Like, what is real anyway? Instead, Elvis gives us a sense of use, of history, of the tool’s life somehow. It's more about the feeling than the perfect representation, and that's what makes it sing.