Figure 1935 - 1942

Florence Truelson made this drawing, "Figure," with pencil, crayon, and watercolor, but when I look at it, I imagine so much more. I'm thinking about Truelson and what she may have been thinking as she built these figures out of so many found items. The color is all gold, making the figures seem precious, and the details become dense, encrusted, and strange. There's an almost feverish accumulation, like the work of Joseph Cornell. I feel the artist's hand in this piece. I love how the textures are built up, crayon layered on top of pencil and watercolor, creating this feeling of a thing that's been obsessively worked on, worried over, built up, and broken down. It’s like she's creating her own language. And in it I see how, as artists, we’re all in conversation with each other, across time, feeding and inspiring each other’s creativity.