Calendula 1931

Asa Cheffetz made this calendula print, and I’m just imagining him hunched over his block, obsessively carving each tiny petal. Can you see how he's built up the forms with all these delicate marks, giving it such a velvety texture? I really admire the patience and the level of detail. It almost feels scientific, like he's trying to understand the very essence of the flower. I can imagine the concentration, the tiny slips of the tool, the way the light might have been changing as he worked on it, bit by bit. And it’s cool how it plays with light and dark, creating this contrast that makes the flowers pop against the solid black background. It reminds me of other printmakers, like Dürer, who had this incredible command of the medium. It makes you wonder what Cheffetz would think of printmaking today, with all our digital tools. I bet he’d still appreciate the handmade quality of it all.