Revolver c. 1942

Elizabeth Johnson, who lived a long life from 1855 to 1995, made this watercolor titled "Revolver". It’s a drawing of a gun, of course, but what kind of feeling does it convey? I'm interested in the different ways artists choose their subjects, and what those decisions might tell us. Johnson may have seen something beautiful in this object, or felt she needed to depict it as part of her life and experience. She may have even had complicated feelings about it. The drawing is so delicate. She's gone into details with the tonal variations to suggest shadow, the illusion of roundness, and to give the surfaces a metallic quality. Johnson is in conversation with a long history of still life, and she probably studied other artist’s ways of rendering objects in paint. Art is a conversation across time, which takes patience, attention and practice.