Hatchel (Flax Comb) c. 1939

LeRoy Griffith made this drawing of a flax comb, a Hatchel, when he was already an older guy. Look at how he's used these delicate lines to describe the object, almost like he's feeling his way around it with the pencil. It’s about the labour of seeing, feeling, and describing. You can see him working it out. The muted browns and beiges give the drawing a quiet, unassuming quality. It reminds me of those Giorgio Morandi paintings of bottles, where the everyday is elevated through careful observation and subtle variations in tone. See how each individual tooth of the comb is rendered with such care, casting delicate shadows on the paper? It's like Griffith is inviting us to contemplate the beauty of the mundane, the poetry of simple tools. It’s almost like he is saying this is the process, this is what matters. In a way, it’s like Agnes Martin’s grids, except instead of lines on a canvas, we have this humble, handmade object, elevated to a thing of beauty through the artist’s patient gaze.