Jug for Batter c. 1937

Frank Fumagalli made this "Jug for Batter" with watercolour and graphite on paper. I can just imagine Fumagalli hunched over this drawing, really paying attention, carefully rendering the simple form and the hand-painted details. Did he linger on each blue brushstroke, thinking about the maker of the jug itself, Cowden & Wilcox of Harrisburg, PA? There is something really beautiful and almost melancholic in the act of depicting an object like this—a humble, utilitarian thing made precious through observation and skill. It makes you think about art as an act of love. Fumagalli is in conversation with the potters. In his own way, with brushstrokes and a keen eye, he elevates their craft, their creation, into something new, asking us to look closely and consider the beauty in the everyday.