Cigar Store Indian 1935 - 1942

Adele Brooks painted this Cigar Store Indian sometime in the 20th century on paper with watercolor and graphite. I think she's rendered this figure in a way that makes it almost tangible, like the sculpture itself. I wonder, what was Adele thinking as she made it? It looks like she took her time, observing, and really trying to understand the object. I can imagine her studying the textures of the wood and how the light fell on the original carving. Brooks' Cigar Store Indian is a conversation piece, a quiet but intense dialogue between her and the original maker of the cigar store figure and between cultures. Artists do this all the time, engaging with others’ works, riffing off ideas across time and space. Each brushstroke, each line, is a form of embodied expression, an imprint of her creative process, inviting us to see and feel along with her.