Creamer c. 1936

John Tarantino made this delicate watercolor drawing of a creamer. The brushstrokes are so fine, barely registering, allowing the light to reflect off the paper. I can imagine Tarantino carefully mixing the colors, trying to capture the exact shade of blue-green. The object itself is pretty humble, yet Tarantino gives it his full attention. I wonder if he saw something special in its simple form, or maybe he was drawn to the way the light danced across its surface. Artists often focus on the mundane, transforming the everyday into something worth contemplating. In a way, it reminds me of Giorgio Morandi’s still-life paintings, where a collection of bottles and jars becomes a source of endless fascination. Paintings like this are acts of seeing, acts of translation, revealing not just what is there, but how an artist chooses to see the world.