Mail Pouch c. 1942

Stella Mosher made this untitled watercolor of a mail pouch, and several views of it, sometime in her long life. I imagine Stella patiently mixing her browns and creams, layering the washes to build up a sense of depth and form, trying to capture the feel of leather, the hard and soft of it. It's like she's turning the object over in her mind, trying to grasp it from all angles, the angles she shows us, but also the unseen angles, the ones she intuits. The sketch on the lower-left feels more provisional, more open to change, while the larger pouch on the right has a strong sense of three-dimensionality, of being "real." I wonder what she was thinking when she made that decision? Mosher's painting reminds me of other artists who have returned to the same subject or motif repeatedly, like Morandi with his bottles or Fairfield Porter with his domestic interiors, using it as a vehicle for exploring different ways of seeing and thinking. Ultimately, painting is about opening up possibilities, allowing for multiple readings and interpretations. We are free to bring our own experiences and perspectives to the act of looking and imagining.