Petroglyph 1935 - 1942

Lala Eve Rivol made this print, *Petroglyph*, sometime in the 20th century. Look at all these glyphs floating in this field of grey. What a personal, idiosyncratic language! I imagine Rivol, armed with tools, digging, scratching, and carving, creating each mark, each symbol. Is it a bird? Is it a star? Are they figures from another world? So many questions! It makes me think of Cy Twombly, but with a sense of humor, like Joan Miró. The texture and color are earthy and primitive, yet there’s also a sense of playfulness, a joy in mark-making. The off-white of the lines creates such a nice contrast. Maybe Rivol was thinking about the way ancient cultures communicate through symbols and stories. It's like she's tapped into some deep collective unconscious, and isn’t that what we all try to do as artists? We're all just riffing off each other, across time and space, trying to make sense of this crazy world.