Taking the Big Gun Away 1916

Joseph Pennell made this print, Taking the Big Gun Away, using lithography. Look at all those marks: they’re not just describing, they’re performing. I imagine Pennell, charcoal in hand, smudging and layering, coaxing the image into being. What’s it like to face that stone, waiting for the image to emerge? There's a lot of chiaroscuro, using shadows and highlights to make the cranes feel even more imposing. I wonder if he felt dwarfed by the machinery, its height against the sky? The sky is just this mass of swirling marks, full of energy. Is it smoke, weather, or just mood? I think of artists like the Futurists, obsessed with speed and industry. Pennell also captured the drama of industrial progress but with a melancholy, too. The "big gun" is a symbol of destruction, maybe he was ambivalent. Ultimately, making art is like this, it's a conversation across time.