Plate 5 1940 - 1943

Louie H. Ewing made this print, "Plate 5," and it is all about lines. There is something so visually satisfying about the repetition of those horizontal stripes, right? I can just imagine Ewing, in their studio, carefully laying down each line, considering the weight, the color, the space in between. It's almost meditative, like breathing. And what about that one, thicker stripe of bright, unapologetic red? It throws everything off balance, but in a good way. It's like a hiccup in a song or an unexpected plot twist in a movie, and you can see the echo of that red in all the other stripes. This piece speaks to the tradition of painting and printmaking, where artists are constantly borrowing, referencing, and riffing off each other’s ideas. Ewing took the language of weaving to the language of printmaking, and now we are all inspired. It's a reminder that art is an ongoing conversation, a back-and-forth exchange of ideas and inspiration across time.