Study for Proposed Portfolio "Decorated Chests of Rural Pennsylvania" 1941

Here's a flat, boldly-colored painting of a flower in a pot by an anonymous artist from rural Pennsylvania. I see a lot of red, yellow, and blue, neatly divided by crisp outlines. It makes me think about the chests this artist might have been decorating—what were they like? And what kind of person would have owned them? It's kind of a goofy image when you really look at it: the tulip-like forms flanking the flower in the center, the zig-zags around the petals, the squiggly lines evoking fire that decorate the pot... I can picture the artist carefully painting each section, maybe whistling, thinking about how the colors play together and if they’re going to work for the client. I love imagining how art travels through communities, accumulating meanings and memories as it goes. This feels like a great example of folk art where artists borrow and adapt motifs, creating their own visual languages. We're all in this game of telephone together, trying to communicate something through color and form. That's what makes art so vital.