Beaded Purse c. 1937

Curator: Look at this, I love this “Beaded Purse,” dating from around 1937 and made with coloured pencils and ink on paper. Editor: Oh, this is quite quaint. Almost…childlike in its rendering of the landscape. There’s something so wonderfully nostalgic about it. Curator: It really does have that charming, folk-art feel. When I look at this, I immediately wonder about its relationship to class and domestic labor. These types of beaded purses, and the techniques required to make them, often were connected to the leisure activities of middle-class women. Editor: Absolutely, this connects beautifully to that tradition! But look closer: do you think it depicts escapism, longing for a simple country life as urbanization changed social conditions and ways of living? Curator: Perhaps! Or a rejection of those social pressures by creating something small, a tangible creation to be held close. There is also an intimacy here, wouldn’t you say? Imagine the dedication to painstakingly render each bead, each stitch with colored pencil. A drawing of the imagined embroidered design is somehow doubly removed. Editor: I feel it is something similar about that tactile sense being translated twice… once in imagining the beadwork and then again as a drawing…that’s interesting for sure! Curator: Right? There’s an element of make-believe and artistry here. Editor: I’m just thinking about who would’ve owned this type of accessory and why the original artist—Josephine Romano—wanted to render it so carefully and lovingly. Is it just because they enjoyed beautiful beaded objects? There’s so much embedded in the image that needs consideration about decorative-art, you see? Curator: Indeed! I do think our modern perspectives provide even deeper considerations on this rendering as well. So often it can feel that art in times of struggle has an uplifting nature or can have symbolic intention. It could simply be lovely and well executed! I tend to enjoy a good bit of loveliness myself! Editor: So true, and that is why thinking through this has been more rewarding for me, as I move from my sometimes serious point of view! I am grateful! Curator: As am I! Looking at things through a different lens keeps it fresh!