Untitled (Abstraction) 1948

James Budd Dixon made this untitled sheet using what looks like a wax crayon to make marks on paper. There's something really immediate about the way the image is put down, almost as if it's a direct transcription of thoughts as they come. I’m really drawn to the linear quality, the way he’s built up these figures out of skeletal lines. They remind me a little of Paul Klee's work, but with a more raw, less refined edge. The crayon creates this slightly broken, textured line, not quite solid, which gives the whole piece a kind of ephemeral feel. Look at the figure in the middle with the shape like a mushroom cloud overhead. See how it is both a shape and also a kind of energy? I see echoes of folk art and outsider art here. There is a real freedom of expression and it is such a reminder that art isn't about perfection, it's about process, feeling, and, like a good conversation, it leaves space for a lot of different voices.