The Animal 125 1968

John Altoon made this piece, The Animal 125, with pen and ink, plus watercolor, on paper. The approach here is kind of like a spontaneous dance. Look at the marks, they're so free! I love the way the colors wash in and around the forms, creating a hazy, dreamlike quality. It feels like Altoon was really in the moment, just letting the materials do their thing and seeing where they would lead him. There's a tension between the delicate washes of color and the scratchy, almost frantic lines of the pen. The lizard, for instance, is rendered with such a light touch, but then there are these darker, more intense areas around its head and claws. The texture is smooth overall, but the ink adds a subtle roughness, a tactile quality that draws you in. It reminds me a bit of Philip Guston's looser, more gestural drawings, where the process is just as important as the final image. With works like this, art is an ongoing conversation, embracing ambiguity and inviting multiple interpretations.