Cameo 1980

This is Helen Frankenthaler’s print, Cameo, and looking at it, I can almost feel the studio, the air thick with turpentine, and the quiet focus it takes to coax an image into being. Frankenthaler was a master of color and mood, and here, the hazy blues and creams create a dreamy, almost ethereal landscape. You can almost feel her, standing before the canvas, tilting it, pouring the paint, letting it stain the surface. It’s a dance between control and chance, a conversation between the artist and the material. Look closely, and you’ll see these ghostly marks, lines, and textures that reveal the history of its making. I think of painters like Joan Mitchell or even Agnes Martin—artists who weren’t afraid to let their feelings flow onto the canvas. There is this lineage of painters who understood that painting is a way of thinking, a way of feeling, and a way of being in the world.