Nobody Knows de Trouble I See 1943

Ruth Starr Rose made this lithograph, Nobody Knows de Trouble I See, sometime around 1947. It’s rendered with a lovely and delicate touch, which gives it a kind of dreamlike quality, like memory. The piece is predominantly gray, but it’s the variation in the tone that really brings it to life. Take a look at the smoke billowing from the burning house, or the angels in the sky, and notice how Rose uses the pencil to create a sense of volume and depth. It’s almost like she’s sculpting with light and shadow. And those angels! They seem to float above the figures below offering protection or solace. You can really see the artist’s hand in the texture of the marks; it is the process of image making itself that lends the image a feeling of such deep empathy. Think of artists like Jacob Lawrence, and the way that folk art traditions can tell us so much about history, about struggle, and about hope.