Girl with a Bus Ticket 1964

Vilen Barsky made this drawing called "Girl with a Bus Ticket" with what looks like graphite on paper. I love the playful economy of line here, the way that the fewest marks possible seem to conjure a whole person. Barsky’s lines are so simple, almost childlike, but look closer, and you see how much information is conveyed. Those spiraling curls of hair, the slightly asymmetrical eyes, and of course, that bus ticket sticking out like a tongue – it’s a portrait, but also a story waiting to be told. The bus ticket is fantastic: it's like she's swallowed the journey, or maybe the journey is speaking for her. It reminds me a bit of Guston, that way of taking the everyday and making it monumental, but with a sweet, light touch. It’s the kind of drawing that makes you want to pick up a pencil and just start doodling, to see what kind of stories you can find in a simple line.