On Tenth Avenue 1939

Emanuel Mac Raboy made this print, On Tenth Avenue, and I can only imagine what it might have been like to create it. What must he have been thinking? The print is a study in light and shadow, and it emerges through labor. It’s not so different from making a painting. Mac Raboy is carving out his image. Can you imagine the focus? The intense looking? The back and forth? I love that these figures are illuminated, but also, in the shadows. The scratches and marks that make up the image, they’re like brushstrokes! Each one must have been so intentional. You know? It’s a way of thinking, or feeling, or seeing. It’s a way of being in the world, and sharing that with others, for years to come. It is this constant conversation that makes art a living process.