Grey Stoneware Cuspidor 1935 - 1942

Frank Fumagalli made this watercolor of a grey stoneware cuspidor sometime between 1855 and 1995. I’m thinking about Frank’s hand as he painted this. Did he consider the task mundane, the way I feel sometimes in my studio when I’m just filling in the background of a canvas? Or was he genuinely captivated by the subtle gradations of grey in the stoneware, the play of light on its surface? See how the grey blends into blue? It’s like he's inviting us to appreciate the beauty in the everyday. The blue flower motif, repeated around the cylinder, is kind of charming, in a simple, unpretentious way. I like how the flowers are also holes. It's something between useful and ornamental. Frank's piece makes me consider the work of other painters who find the extraordinary in the ordinary, who elevate the mundane to something worthy of contemplation. Painting, like life, is about finding beauty in the unexpected, in the imperfect, in the things we often overlook.