Baby's Cap c. 1937

Mary E. Humes drew this Baby's Cap with graphite and colored pencil on paper, and it makes me think about drawing as a form of loving attention. The almost-there quality of the marks, the pale hues, they give the sense that this drawing emerged delicately, tentatively, like a whisper or a memory. I imagine Humes, the artist, gently coaxing the form of the cap into being, one line at a time. I wonder what she was thinking about as she made each mark. The little circles with radiating lines—are they suns, flowers, or something else entirely? How they repeat, like a rhythmic motif, creating a tender, comforting atmosphere. Drawing is like that, you know. It's a conversation between the hand, the eye, and the heart. It is a way to slow down, to really see, and to honor the thing that is being drawn.