Bishop Hill: Desk 1936

Alfred Koehn made this drawing of a Bishop Hill desk, with watercolor, pen, and ink. You know, it's kind of wild to see a drawing of a desk that someone made, and then to see the actual measurements right underneath it. It gives a good sense of its proportions. It reminds me of being back in art school and having to draw things from real life. Do you think Koehn found it soothing to draw this? I'd imagine, in a way, there's something meditative about it, like you're thinking about this desk and what it could hold...all those little nooks and crannies where secrets could be hidden. You get a real sense of the object's shape and surface. It’s neat that, by drawing it, he was able to convey not only the form but also its potential use. He was thinking about design and life.