Mother 1928

Dwight Case Sturges made this etching called 'Mother', but we don't know exactly when. I'm thinking about that phrase 'the mother of invention’ looking at this print. Maybe she's reading up on something new, but equally, the artist's hand has been working, too, inventing as it goes, responding to the story of his mother as it unfolds in front of him, trying to catch a likeness. See how the lines become more dense to create the shadows in her face? I love the image of George Washington above her—what's that about? Maybe he was her hero. The way the artist's hand wavers here and there, letting the lines bleed out around the edges, tells us something about memory. All artists are in conversation, reaching back to the past, looking at what other artists have done. Here, Sturges seems to be having a really intimate exchange with his own mother through the making of this print.