Demi Dauterive uses a bamboo swab to dab acetone around the drawing, careful not to apply too much of the solution at once.
The sketch is a rendering of a man driving a mule-drawn wagon stacked high in sugarcane. Dauterive knows there’s something to be preserved here, a story of everyday life at Windrush Plantation told through rough lines made by Steele Burden’s pen. Or was it a graphite pencil — a distinction that now matters.
The artist’s medium has yet to be determined, which presents a challenge, because if any of these drawings are lost, much of Burden’s narrative risks being lost with them…