Landscape, Orizaba, Mexico 19th-20th century

Editor: This is Denman Waldo Ross's watercolor, "Landscape, Orizaba, Mexico". It’s a smaller piece, but the colors feel so vibrant and alive. How would you interpret this work? Curator: I see a deliberate engagement with the act of seeing and representing. Ross uses watercolor to capture the materiality of the landscape, but also the way that light and color transform it. The built environment of Orizaba is also present, but it seems to be taking a secondary position. Editor: So you are saying he is more interested in the act of creating than the subject itself? Curator: Exactly. He emphasizes the process, the labor of rendering the scene, rather than a straightforward representation of Orizaba. The blurred boundaries between the built and natural environments are interesting. Editor: I never thought about it that way, it gives me a whole new perspective. Curator: It challenges our traditional notions of art and craft, making us think about the means of production itself.