Part of Sabine D Region of the Moon, Southwest Mare Tranquilitatis 1972

Nancy Graves made this work, *Part of Sabine D Region of the Moon, Southwest Mare Tranquilitatis*, using ink, watercolor, and graphite on paper. Just imagine her, in her studio, making so many tiny marks! Thousands of dots building up this strange lunar surface. There's a tension between representation and abstraction here. She's mapping a faraway place, but also creating an image that's about color and texture first and foremost. There is a play between the flatness of the paper and the illusion of depth. The black areas are like voids, swallowing the light and creating an unsettling feeling. The green and purple make it feel fertile. It makes me think about Agnes Martin's grids, but looser, more organic. Both artists find ways to combine process with observation, and thinking. What does it mean to record something? How does the act of making transform what we see? That's what artists explore.