Hat 1936

Marie Famularo made this drawing of a hat, sometime in the mid-twentieth century, using pencil and watercolor. Just looking at it makes me think about my own process. It's funny, isn't it, how someone else's choices can spark your own ideas? I can imagine Famularo delicately applying these washes of brown watercolor, letting it pool and bleed to build up this strange, ridged texture. It’s like she’s building the hat from the inside out. And then BAM that bright blue ribbon! It's so out of place but in a really good way. Like a little jolt of energy. There’s an unfinished sketch of another hat in the corner, and you get the sense that she’s working something out, a shift between observation and invention. A site of inquiry, just like any good painting. We are all always trying to figure it out.