Wood Residence c. 1936

Tabea Hosier, who lived from 1855 to 1995, made this drawing, Wood Residence, with colored pencil. Look at the tender way Tabea builds up the surface with small marks of color. Her process is a slow accumulation, a quiet attention to detail that really draws me in. The textures are gentle, soft, almost like a memory. I can almost feel the grain of the paper through the pastel. Notice the circles of flowers in the garden, the way each petal is rendered with care, as if Tabea is both documenting and imagining. It reminds me of the way Agnes Martin uses grids, a kind of mapping of inner space onto the outer world. This piece has a kind of otherworldly feel. Maybe like a Joseph Yoakum drawing, it’s a place that exists more in the realm of dreams than in reality. It reminds us that art isn't just about what we see, but about how we see, and how we can create new worlds through our own unique vision.