Forest 1989

Ruth Fine made this print called 'Forest' using shades of green. It's a kind of puzzle, isn't it? I love the way she's built up this space with marks, rubbing, and scratching. It's like she's coaxing the image out of the plate, one layer at a time. I can almost feel her hand moving across the surface, testing and feeling her way through. What was she thinking as she created it? Was she trying to capture a memory of a place? Or maybe it was more about the pleasure of the process itself. Look at the lower right corner. The marks seem to mimic a pine tree. Do you see it too? It makes me think of other artists like Agnes Martin, who used repetition and subtle variations to create these really meditative spaces. Artists are in constant conversation, echoing each other’s ideas across time. There's no single way to interpret this 'Forest', and that's precisely its magic.