Girl's Jacket c. 1937

Roberta Spicer made this 'Girl's Jacket' using watercolour. Look at the plaid pattern, each little square a kind of decision-making process. It's a reminder that art, like life, is often about navigating a grid. Spicer uses delicate, almost translucent layers of watercolor. The blues and whites mix on the page, a bit like a dressmaker working with fine fabrics. The whole thing has a ghostly, ephemeral quality, like a memory of a garment rather than the thing itself. Check out the trimming that seems to float away from the garment. Is it part of the jacket or not? Just like the edges in a painting, the edges of this jacket are uncertain. Spicer reminds me of the work of Agnes Martin, who also used grids and pale colors to create subtle, meditative images. Both artists invite us to slow down, to look closely, and to find beauty in the simplest of forms. It’s a conversation across time and media, a reminder that art is always in dialogue with itself.