Forest 1973

Marisol Escobar made this print "Forest" with ink on paper. It seems that she pressed real leaves onto the surface to make it. I can imagine her in the studio playing with how the leaves will land, pushing down onto them to make the textures appear, like a kid creating leaf rubbings on paper with a crayon. The leaves are dense, a forest of dark shades forming an almost impenetrable barrier. And yet they're still quite delicate, the veins on the leaves revealing their fragility. There's a lot of layering and overlap here. This reminds me of the work of other artists interested in nature like Agnes Martin, but while Martin's work is more sparse and minimal, this print is lush. It’s interesting to think about how artists are always looking at each other's work, playing off each other's ideas, and making something new. Each of us embraces the ambiguities and uncertainties, allowing for multiple interpretations.