Jar with Cover c. 1939

Alvin Shiren painted this Jar with Cover, we don't know when, and we also don't know with what. It looks like watercolor, but it could be anything, really. And, I think that's the thing here: looking *is* thinking, you know? The color's so earthy, it grounds the whole piece. There's this drip or a streak of dark brown, almost black, running down the side, like a tear or a shadow that gives it depth, like it's not just sitting there, but *existing.* The way the light hits the jar feels real, like he really looked at the thing. This piece reminds me a little of Giorgio Morandi. He also painted jars, but his are paler, more ghostly somehow. Shiren’s got this solidness, a connection to the earth. And in the end, what is seeing but making a connection, opening up to all the different ways of looking?