Promenade c. 1939

Carlos Anderson made this print, "Promenade", using lithography, but we don't know exactly when. It looks to me like Anderson is less interested in a perfect image than in the feel of the thing – the process of making a picture. I love the way the lithographic crayon creates fuzzy textures and soft shadows, like the shading on the road. It's not about a polished surface; it's about building up layer after layer. See how the light just seems to be exhaling out of the ground? That's not an accident! Anderson's mark-making feels intuitive, like he's letting the image emerge through touch. It puts me in mind of artists like Ad Reinhardt, who wasn’t afraid to build his image from the ground up. There’s no right or wrong way to do this; art is just a way to explore new ways of experiencing our world.