Salt Dip c. 1936

John Dana made this drawing of a salt dip, probably sometime in the 20th century, with graphite on paper. There's something so straightforward about how he lays down the lines, like he's not trying to be fancy, just getting the job done, you know? That kind of directness is really appealing. I'm drawn to the way Dana captures the light playing on the glass. It's all about the surface, that dance of light and shadow creating a kind of sparkling geometry. Look at the base, how it's both solid and transparent, like the whole thing is about this tension between form and light. I keep thinking about how glass is made, how it's molten and then cools and hardens, it's a real transformation and the drawing is about that process of change. This reminds me of some of the precisionist painters, like Charles Sheeler, who were also interested in the way light transforms everyday objects. But with Dana, there's something a little more humble, a little more personal, about the whole thing. It's not about perfection, it's about seeing.