Green Angel [working proof with ink and crayon additions] 1991

Jasper Johns made this ‘Green Angel’ print with ink and crayon, and you can see he’s really working through something. It's a ‘working proof’, right? So he's figuring it out as he goes. The first thing I notice is how the washes of ink create this shadowy, almost ghostly atmosphere around the central form. It’s like something is emerging, or maybe dissolving. Then there are these crayon marks – little scribbles and crosses, kind of childlike – scattered across the surface. Look at the bottom left, those short scribbled green strokes. It feels like he's both building up and breaking down the image at the same time. There's such vulnerability in the way he lets his process show. It reminds me of Rauschenberg's layering of images and materials, that idea of art as a kind of excavation, always revealing and concealing.   Ultimately, this feels like a really intimate glimpse into the artist's mind. It's a reminder that art is not just about the finished product, but about the journey, the struggle, the messy and beautiful process of trying to make sense of the world.