The Deacon's Shay 1946

Juliette Steele made this lithograph print titled The Deacon’s Shay, with stone, ink, and paper. Just look at these shapes, like a child’s idea of machines, or maybe body parts? I wonder what it was like for Steele to make this. The process of layering ink, of wiping away, of allowing the stone to speak… I like to think of her, working away in her studio, adding a line here, a smudge there. How the pressure of the stone, the grain of the paper, might guide her hand. The mark-making feels so immediate, so intuitive. Each shape a little mystery, each line a little clue. Do you see those wiggly lines on the left? They remind me of Joan Miró's biomorphic forms. Ultimately, artists are always riffing off one another, in a constant conversation across time. There’s no right way to understand this artwork. It's all about letting your mind wander and embracing the unknown.