Grain Scoop c. 1939

LeRoy Griffith made this rendering of a grain scoop sometime in the 20th century. It's rendered with colored pencil, and the marks are small and tentative. I feel for LeRoy, you know? He was given this task of drawing a grain scoop – a simple, functional object. Maybe he was thinking about the history of labor, the weight of the grain, the feel of the metal. The scoop is brown and grey, muted tones that speak to the earth and the fields. The handle extends upwards in a gentle arc, a gesture of offering or perhaps of burden. What was it like to sit with this object, to try and capture its essence on paper? Each line, each shade, a meditation on form and function. It makes me consider the quiet, focused act of drawing, the way it can transform the mundane into something worthy of contemplation. Thinking and seeing.