Saddle 1935 - 1942

Gordena Jackson made this drawing of a saddle sometime before she passed away in 1993. It's mostly brown, made with thin washes of paint. I wonder, what was it like for Jackson to make this? What was she thinking about? Did she own this saddle? It feels as though the artist’s hand has carefully and lovingly moved across the page, replicating every detail. Look at the tassels and the stirrups! It's like she's tracing the saddle's story in her own way. Each line, each shape, a little whisper of memory. Painters are always having a conversation with each other, across time and space. I see the work of other artists in this piece; a shared language of looking and making, of trying to capture something real and turning it into something new. Painting is an embodied expression, a way of feeling and thinking that embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, leaving space for all sorts of interpretations.