Tin Mirror Frame c. 1936

Majel G. Claflin made this 'Tin Mirror Frame' sometime before 1941. Look closely and you can see how she used the watercolor to make a record of an object – the surface is smooth and the color is applied evenly and neatly. I wonder what it was like to try and capture a three-dimensional object on a flat plane? I've often thought about this when making my own paintings. The artist has described the way light falls on this decorative tin mirror, so we can almost feel the tin's texture. The mirror's grayness is broken by little asterisk-like details. What interests me most are the mirror's funny ‘S’ shapes on each side. The whole object is beautifully symmetrical but also slightly wonky, and there's something appealing about that. We can see in this artwork that every artist makes decisions and responds to their chosen medium. We're all in conversation with one another.