Weather Vane 1935 - 1942

This drawing of a weather vane was created by E.J. Gilsleider, we don't know exactly when. But the drawing itself is like a little machine for thought, isn't it? I find myself wondering about the maker, Gilsleider, thinking about what they might have been looking for when they drew this. Are they interested in the object itself, as a piece of folk art? I'm curious about the relationship between the solid metal and the flat page, the way a drawing can fix something ephemeral. There is an exactitude here, the carefulness with which the leaves are rendered, the numbers on the fish-shaped vane. But the drawing also captures an in-between space, between the solid object and the intangible air, between the real and the represented. The object exists and moves, and we are stuck still, looking at the picture. I love that tension.