Before Winter 1941

J. Jay McVicker made this print, Before Winter, using black ink on paper, and it's the kind of image that really gets under your skin. I mean that in a good way! It's not trying to be realistic; it embraces the cut of the block, the stark contrast, and lets the image emerge from that process. Look at how McVicker carves out the shapes of the bare trees, their branches reaching out like spidery fingers. Each line is deliberate, digging into the material to create these pockets of light and shadow. See how the texture of the grass is almost like a scratchy scribble? That area in the foreground really sings! It’s like he’s not just depicting a landscape, but also capturing the feeling of winter closing in, that stillness and anticipation in the air. The two horses look like ghosts. There's a sense of folk art to this piece; the influence of artists like Marsden Hartley comes to mind. It reminds me that art is always a conversation, that artists are always building on what came before, finding new ways to make marks and tell stories.