Untitled (Envelope with Leaves) 1981

This is "Untitled (Envelope with Leaves)" by Miguel Cervantes. It’s hard to pin down when it was made or how – but it’s a print, so we know it's been through a process. Look at how the textures play against each other. There's a real rawness to it. You can almost feel the artist scraping, layering, building up the image through touch and pressure. The monochromatic palette adds to that sense of something elemental, like earth or stone. Check out the lower left corner. See the way the lines diverge and converge? It's like a little abstract landscape within the bigger picture. I love how the artist isn't afraid to leave things unresolved, to let the materials speak for themselves. It reminds me of early Susan Rothenberg. In the end, it's not about perfection, but about embracing the messy, unpredictable nature of artmaking.