Reworked Tracing after William Morris Hunt's "The Discoverer" Fresco, Assembly Chamber, State Capitol, Albany, New York c. 1878

Editor: This is William Rimmer’s "Reworked Tracing after William Morris Hunt's 'The Discoverer' Fresco." It’s a pencil drawing and, I have to say, it looks unfinished or like a draft. What symbols or deeper meanings do you see in it? Curator: Consider how the act of tracing itself carries significance. It's not just replication but a reinterpretation, almost a dialogue with Hunt’s original fresco. Rimmer engages with the theme of discovery, but through the lens of another artist's vision. The figures themselves become symbols of knowledge, power, and perhaps even ambition. What emotions do they evoke in you? Editor: They look determined, but also a bit lost in thought. So, tracing can be an act of finding oneself, not just another’s work? I hadn't considered that. Curator: Precisely. It shows how symbols persist, transform, and acquire new layers of meaning over time through artists' subjective experiences.