Skeleton Marionette c. 1936

This drawing of a skeleton marionette was made by George File. I imagine File carefully mapping out the intricacies of the puppet. He was probably using a limited palette of muted grays and browns to capture the object's form and texture. There's a sense of precision in the lines, particularly in the way the strings are meticulously depicted, each one numbered. He probably gave a lot of thought to the mechanics of how a puppet works, almost like a diagram, or maybe an instruction manual. I imagine File spending hours on this piece. What was he thinking about while painting? Maybe the theater, death, or the relationship between control and freedom. Artists like File are in an ongoing conversation across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is an embodied expression which embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations.