Southern Memories c. 1940s

Merritt Mauzey made this print, Southern Memories, without specifying when or what exact materials he used to make it. I can imagine Mauzey standing before his printing plate, deeply rooted in the act of creation. You know, he’s probably thinking about how each line, each mark, contributes to the whole. He's laying down these dense, rhythmic lines, almost meditative in their repetition. See how the cross-hatching builds up to create shadows and forms? This is a kind of dance between control and chance. His choice of a monochromatic palette, a dense black ink against the stark white paper, really emphasizes the graphic quality of the print. It almost feels like a love letter to the medium itself. You can really feel the weight and the quiet of the scene, you know? It just makes me think about how we make art and how we remember the world around us.