Side View of Hartford Chest c. 1936

Martin Partyka made this small drawing of a Hartford Chest, but when? Who knows! It’s a careful thing. You can see the light wood grain, and the pop of the red outline. It's all meticulously rendered, with the kind of care that suggests a deep engagement with the subject. I wonder what Partyka was thinking when they drew this. Maybe they were thinking about furniture design, or maybe they were just trying to capture the essence of this particular piece. I can imagine them, squinting slightly, pencil in hand, carefully measuring and sketching, trying to get every detail just right. I think about what Eva Hesse said: "The process is the process." It reminds me that the act of painting – or drawing – is itself a form of inquiry. Artists are always in conversation, inspiring one another’s creativity. They take the threads of what came before and weave them into something new. It's like we are all standing on the shoulders of giants, trying to see a little further, to understand a little more.