Ravenel Doorway, Charleston c. 1945

Elizabeth O'Neill Verner made this etching, Ravenel Doorway, Charleston, and look at the way she’s created a world through tiny marks and careful hatching. For me, artmaking is about uncovering, allowing the process to guide you as much as you guide it. Here, the dense network of lines builds up the architectural details, the shadows, and the very air of Charleston. Notice how the artist varies the pressure and spacing of the lines to create depth and texture. The tree is particularly interesting - it seems to reach out from the page like a grasping hand. This mark-making feels intuitive, almost like automatic writing, yet it constructs a very solid and real sense of place. It reminds me a little of Whistler’s etchings of Venice, a similar attention to atmosphere and a sense of poetry in the everyday. Art is always a conversation, a dialogue across time and space. Each artist brings their own voice, their own way of seeing, and it's never really about answers as about embracing the questions.