Girl's Jacket c. 1937

Roberta Spicer made this ‘Girl’s Jacket’ sometime in her long lifetime. She probably used watercolor, maybe gouache, to depict a plaid jacket. The light blues and whites give it a breezy feel. Imagine Spicer making this. It’s so precise, so careful. I bet she was really in the zone, totally focused on getting those lines just right. You can almost feel her holding her breath as she paints each square of the plaid. It makes me think about Agnes Martin and her grids, all those subtle variations. But unlike Martin's meditative, almost ethereal grids, this jacket has a real-world practicality. Someone designed it, someone made it, someone actually wore it. It is like she’s saying: look closely at what already exists. There’s beauty everywhere, even in the ordinary. And that’s a lesson I think we can all take to heart, you know? It makes you look at your own clothes and how they’re made.