Sea Bird Saga XI 1966

Wallace Bradstreet Putnam made "Sea Bird Saga XI" using what looks like charcoal to create a monochrome world. This piece feels like a process of layering and erasure, with the marks on the paper revealing a journey of exploration. The texture is key here; you can almost feel the powdery residue of the charcoal. There's this one area near the bottom where the lines become these bold, sweeping gestures, like the bird is bursting forth from the very earth. The contrast with the smudged, atmospheric background makes it pop. It reminds me a bit of some of Guston's later, more abstract stuff, where the subject matter is less important than the act of mark-making itself. "Sea Bird Saga XI" isn't about perfection; it's about the messy, beautiful ambiguity of art.