Saturday in Navasota c. 1930

Kathleen Blackshear made this lithograph, Saturday in Navasota, by drawing with a greasy crayon onto a flat slab of limestone. The image comes into being through touch, pressure, and the artist's own weight bearing down on the stone. I can imagine Kathleen Blackshear, bending over the stone, working in reverse. She might have been thinking about Diego Rivera, who she studied with in Mexico. He was super into the social role of art and the importance of depicting everyday life. She’s thinking about bodies and how to create them with shape and shading. You can see how the man’s arm becomes a pattern, a texture, and the boy is hunched down, small. The two figures leaning on the cardboard box, which reads, ‘Navasota Ready Ripe.’ It reminds me of Elizabeth Catlett and other artists who were part of the Chicago Black Renaissance. They are all in conversation, inspiring each other's creativity. Blackshear embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.