Bracelet c. 1930s

This silver bracelet, made by a Navajo artist, has a simple but compelling structure. The hand seems present, and that's important. You can see how the different elements are brought together. It’s the texture that grabs me, the way the silver has been worked. It's not polished to perfection; instead, it bears the marks of the making process, which gives the bracelet a raw, earthy quality. It's like the metal remembers being pulled and shaped, and the turquoise, with its own matrix of imperfections, feels like a piece of the earth. Take a closer look at the radiating lines around the central stone. Each line is deliberate, not exactly perfect, but full of intention. It reminds me of how we build up marks in painting, each one a decision, a gesture, that contributes to the whole. This bracelet feels like a direct relative of work by someone like Richard Tuttle, or maybe even some outsider art. It's not trying to be slick, it just is.