Trammel c. 1939

Mary Hansen made this beautiful drawing of a trammel sometime in the 20th century, we don't know exactly when, using graphite and colored pencil on paper. The choice to depict this particular tool, this trammel, what does it mean? In the drawing, Hansen takes the time to capture every tooth of the saw edge and the circle at the bottom. The colours! That rusty brown against the pale background. It’s all about the material, the texture, the aging, the history embedded in the object. The trammel itself, a tool to measure and hold, rendered with such care. The drawing feels like an act of preservation, not just of the object but also of a way of life, or a certain kind of labor. It reminds me of Charles Sheeler's Precisionist paintings, but with a softer, more intimate touch. It’s a celebration of craftsmanship. Ultimately, art is about seeing, about making the ordinary extraordinary, and Hansen does just that.