Child's Top c. 1939

Fritz Boehmer painted this Child's Top in watercolor, and he's given it such care, such attention. I'm trying to imagine him painting it: the way he must have been looking, turning the top around in his hand. It’s kind of magical what he’s doing. Look at these lines of color, how they wrap around and around, the red, the pink, that band of blue like the sky, so thin it almost disappears! And these washes of brown that bleed together to give the wood a worn, almost ancient appearance. He seems to be trying to extract something from the object, as if by painting it, he can keep it spinning forever. Painting is a way of looking, a way of thinking, a way of keeping things alive. We all learn from each other, don't we? That’s what paintings do: they keep the conversation going.