Coffee Grinder c. 1940

Archie Thompson made this painting of a coffee grinder, we don’t know when. The colours are muted browns, oranges, reds, and grays. What did he think as he painted each tiny wood detail, each interlocking joint of the coffee grinder’s box, all those individual elements? Was he feeling the grain of the wood or thinking about the smell of coffee? This piece has a kind of folk art feel and I can imagine Thompson was fascinated by the way things work, like some of Joseph Cornell's boxes. All those interlocking parts, the possibility to take something apart and put it back together, the satisfaction.