Mahogany chair c. 1935

Here's a mahogany chair, envisioned on paper by James M. Lawson. It makes you think about the quiet observation, and the decisions involved in committing to the page a vision of a chair. The gentle curves and straight lines speak to a functional elegance; I wonder about the original object it depicts. Imagine Lawson, pencil in hand, carefully considering the fall of light on the wood, the plush of the seat. Was this a beloved object, a commission, or simply an exercise in form? The small scale lends an intimacy. It reminds me of Ingres who was a master of line. Artists are always in dialogue. What artists have made stays with us and guides our hands as we make something new. It's a beautiful thing, this passing of ideas. Painting and drawing embrace ambiguity, and, like the process itself, allow multiple readings rather than one fixed meaning.