Happy New Year, 1971 (Bonne Annee, 1971) 1971

Albert Edgar Yersin made this etching, Happy New Year, sometime in 1971. Look at how these lines emerge out of a murky ground, like memories surfacing. I wonder what Yersin was thinking that year, what he was anticipating. There's a feeling of both looking back and looking forward at the same time, right? I see a few dark, decisive marks slicing through all the fuzz, the uncertainty. Notice the cross-hatching, the shapes that mimic other shapes, and the figure-ground relationships that keep shifting. It feels like a conversation between control and chance, something every artist can relate to. Each decision leads to another, like improvising a dance. Yersin might have been influenced by artists like Kandinsky or Klee. You know, we're all in conversation with each other, across time. That’s what I love about painting and printmaking – it’s an ongoing dialogue, open to interpretation and change.