Puppet: "Punch" c. 1937

This is Edward Strzalkowski's rendering of the Punch puppet, made with what looks like watercolor or gouache on paper. It's all about the layering. Look at how the pigment pools and settles, creating these delicate gradations of color. You can almost feel the artist coaxing the water around, watching it find its own way. It's a dance between control and chance, kind of like puppet theater itself! The material quality here—the way the paint sits on the page—it’s everything. Strzalkowski’s use of line is so sensitive. The ruff at Punch's neck and the dark lines around his eyes create a sense of depth that makes his expression all the more disturbing. I'm also drawn to the feet. They’re so small, so vulnerable, in contrast to the exaggerated features of the face. Strzalkowski seems like an outsider artist, like Henry Darger, maybe. It's like they both had something they needed to express, rules be damned! Ultimately, art is about dialogue, about riffing on what came before and pushing it somewhere new. It's about embracing the messiness, the ambiguity, and letting the conversation unfold.