Tom Mix I c. 1920s

Paul Gangolf made this etching, Tom Mix I, using a metal plate to create a scene of cowboys on horseback, somewhere in time... I imagine Gangolf, hunched over the plate, scratching lines with a drypoint needle, building up a sense of light and shadow. Look at the mountains in the background. They’re not just mountains; they’re jagged teeth. This isn’t a photograph but a feeling. Those figures on horseback, they’re rough, almost primitive, their faces hidden in shadow beneath their hats. You know, when I make art, I go through these periods where I feel like I’m channeling something. I imagine Gangolf felt something similar, caught between the Wild West and a European sensibility, between reality and myth. It makes me think about other artists, like Guston, who embraced a kind of raw, expressive figuration. Gangolf’s mark-making feels like a precursor to that, a willingness to be vulnerable and direct. It is an ongoing conversation.