Hurricane Shade 1936

Curator: Looking at John Dana's 1936 pencil drawing, "Hurricane Shade," gives me such a delicate, almost dreamlike sensation. What do you make of it? Editor: Well, it strikes me immediately as a very formal exercise in light and form. Note the precise rendering of the cylindrical object and the etched floral details, typical for academic works from the 1930s. Curator: Right? It's an object depicted with precision! Knowing John Dana, I almost feel he approached the sketch as an attempt to understand or reflect a sort of ideal of craftedness or utilitarianism, perhaps a symbol for light overcoming any darkness. Editor: Intuitively that's great, but I suggest seeing the composition and construction first: it is not a simple illustration. Focus on the mirroring floral arrangements, segmented, controlled, almost mathematical, with an interesting convergence of natural elements expressed through industrial object representation. Curator: Interesting perspective. Personally, I keep wondering, if you focus enough light into anything, does the very vessel itself start to change shape—like some kind of weird alchemy where a glass redraws its own existence? Editor: What is particularly interesting, if you allow my material-aesthetic reduction to proceed, is the flatness here. Though the artist utilizes hatching to create depth, the subject and ground remain stubbornly planar. Curator: Maybe he knew that perfect curves were just elaborate illusions, even back then! An interesting contrast of form and vision to note. It's a study that keeps whispering secrets to all of us. Editor: Exactly. I think a very apt way of framing such analysis given the nuances here, this offers a fruitful exercise in art, craft, and theory intersectionality!