The Garden Wall 1927

Levon West made this etching, "The Garden Wall, Zion Nat'l Park" in 1927. You can almost feel him there in the dusty landscape, squinting into the sun. I'm really struck by how the wall of rock emerges slowly, as if through a fog. A single line defines the edge of a cliff, a subtle reminder of the power of observation. What makes marks so juicy, so able to carry meaning? In a way, he's in conversation with painters like Cezanne and others who were obsessed with mountains. Each mark must have been so deliberate. What does it mean to spend that much time looking, translating a landscape into something so distilled? It's like he's winking at the viewer, saying, "Look closely, the world is full of wonder." And maybe that’s what art is all about—seeing the world anew.