Untitled 1995

This print was made in 1995 by Donna Dennis, and I think you can see that she’s trying to draw something from memory: a cabin, a forest, a lake, the kind of place that exists in your mind more than in reality. It's a place of the imagination and this one is rendered in simple, powerful, black lines, that carve out not just the forms but also the emotions of the place. I look at the little house perched on a rock and I wonder, what's it like up there? The rock looks like it might crumble at any moment, or like the whole structure might slide into the dark waters below. Dennis is walking a line, isn’t she, between control and chance, between representation and feeling, and that's what makes it so alive. What a great image! It stays with you, like a dream you can't quite shake.