Bulto (Penitente Nazarine Christ) 1939

Eldora P. Lorenzini made this watercolor drawing, Bulto (Penitente Nazarine Christ), at an unknown date. The marks are applied with such care and precision, it's like each one is a tiny meditation. Look at the almost clinical approach to color; the wooden skin tones, the stark red blood droplets – it's a palette of suffering, rendered with a detached, almost scientific coolness. The drawing feels ghostly, like a memory or a relic, the washes of color so thin, they barely cling to the surface. And yet, that fragility is what gives it its power. Consider the feet, resting on the plank; the way the lines capture the texture of the wood. This piece reminds me a little of the work of Forrest Bess, not in subject matter, but in the obsessive, personal vision. Ultimately, art is about embracing ambiguity and the multiplicity of meaning.