Church Bell 1935 - 1942

Editor: This is Edward Albritton’s “Church Bell,” likely made sometime between 1935 and 1942, using watercolors and drawing, perhaps charcoal too. It gives me a slightly somber, contemplative feeling. What catches your eye, looking at this piece? Curator: Well, first off, there's something wonderfully humble about a church bell rendered in watercolor. It's unexpected, like finding poetry in the everyday. To me, Albritton seems to be asking: What do we hold sacred, and how do we depict it? The texture, especially, hints at the patinas of time, doesn’t it? Editor: Definitely, you can almost hear the echoes! What about the inscription around the top? Curator: Ah, yes! A tantalizing fragment. Looks like "...D ST GLALAV'..." which could be anything, couldn’t it? Some half-remembered Latin phrase? Or perhaps the name of the church, lost to time… That sense of incomplete knowledge is part of the charm, I think. It invites us to co-create the meaning, to ring our own narrative out of it, so to speak. Don't you find yourself filling in the blanks, letting your imagination chime in? Editor: I do. I was trying to guess what those letters could stand for! Thanks. I'll certainly look at other drawings in a new light after this. Curator: Wonderful! Remember, looking at art is about sparking that conversation within yourself, letting the art whisper its secrets… or sometimes shout them from the rooftops!