Crab Fishermen 1953

Emmy Lou Packard made this print, 'Crab Fishermen' and you can see her process right there in the image itself! Imagine her carving away at that block, each cut a decisive move. There’s such a great simplification of form, like the fishermen's hands or the crabs themselves – they're almost abstracted into shapes, yet they’re still so full of life, so present. It’s like she’s not just showing us what’s there, but also what it feels like to be there, right on that boat, in the moment of the catch. The color palette is so distinctive, too. The purples give the crabs an otherworldly quality, as if they come from some strange, alien sea. I think about the physicality of printmaking, the labor of it. It's not just about the idea, it's also about the body, the press, and the ink. I imagine other artists like Jacob Lawrence. It’s all part of a continuous conversation, an exchange of ideas and methods that spans decades, each artist borrowing, responding, and pushing back against what came before.