Basket 1935 - 1942

This drawing of a basket was made by Mary Berner, who lived to be over a hundred years old and who probably made this with pencil and maybe some watercolor. I can imagine her patiently rendering the woven texture, block by block, circle by circle, with little blue flowers. It makes me think about the act of replication, and the difference between looking and copying. I wonder if this was done from life, or from memory, or from another image? Was it a basket in her house, something she made and used? Or was it a kind of exercise, a study? There’s another geometric design in the corner, maybe a detail of the weave, or a pattern for another basket. It’s a bit like how painters do studies, trying out different ideas, seeing how things fit together. Each mark, each tiny detail builds towards the final image.