Mourning Ring c. 1936

John H. Tercuzzi rendered this design for a Mourning Ring with pencil and watercolor on paper. It looks like an exercise in perspective; the ring is viewed from different angles, a jeweler’s flat technical drawing. See how Tercuzzi used delicate watercolor washes to suggest the gold band? The translucency of the paint is key; it almost glows, giving the ring a spectral quality. And then there are the dark, opaque squares of color that represent the stones. Tercuzzi renders them as solid and still, like pools of memory, or frozen tears. My eye keeps returning to the profile view of the ring. It's not quite a shadow, but it’s not fully there either, teetering between presence and absence. Perhaps Tercuzzi saw drawing as a way to embody an object, a way to hold something precious, even in the face of loss. Like in the work of the contemporary artist, Sanya Kantarovsky, Tercuzzi embraces the sentimental and the abject. The result is unsettling and poignant.