Mug c. 1940

John Dana made this drawing of a mug, and though we don’t know exactly when, we can see it happened through a slow process of looking. Imagine the artist, Dana, his eye moving carefully along the rim, around the handle, down to the base, mapping out the mug’s form. Think of the delicate pressure of the pencil as he coaxes the form into existence. The lines are so delicate, almost tentative, like he’s feeling his way through the shapes, figuring it out as he goes. I wonder, what was he thinking about while he worked on it? Was he thinking about other glass objects he’d seen or handled? Or maybe he was just totally absorbed in the task at hand, lost in the pure act of looking and drawing. Dana probably looked at other drawings of glassware, in order to better understand the long history of artists drawing from life, learning from the past masters, while still making it his own. What do you think?