Trundle Bed 1935 - 1942

Mattie P. Goodman made this watercolour painting of a trundle bed on paper, but when I look at it, I don’t just see a bed; I see a portal into another world. Imagine Goodman, brush in hand, carefully rendering each spindle, each curve. The wooden frame is painted with such dedication, it's as if she’s conjuring the bed into being. The bed appears to be floating in the air on the blank page! I think about the physicality of the process—the feel of the brush, the smell of the watercolour. Each stroke seems to whisper a memory of a real bed, perhaps one from Goodman’s childhood. It reminds me that artists are always in conversation with each other, across time and space. Mattie P. Goodman has made this artwork, and now it’s speaking to me and hopefully to you too. It makes me want to make something myself.