Granite Tor 1955

Norma Morgan created "Granite Tor" using etching on paper. Imagine her inking the plate, carefully wiping it down, running it through the press. She's coaxing this landscape out of the stone, bit by bit. I feel for her, trying to capture the weight of those rocks, the way the light hits those clouds. You can almost feel the wind. There's something so solid about the rocks, and then this feathery, almost nervous energy in the sky. It makes me think about contrast, about how much we need the soft to understand the hard. It's like she’s saying, “Look at this place, this moment.” It reminds me of some of the Hudson River School painters, but with a real, direct intimacy. We are all just trying to say something that will last beyond ourselves, and that makes all artists kind of comrades, don’t you think?