Sugar Maple, New Hampshire c. 1940 - 1969

Leo Meissner created this print of a Sugar Maple in New Hampshire with etching. It’s so finely wrought, like a dense thicket of tiny marks building up to a single, solid thing. Imagine the artist’s hand, moving back and forth, back and forth across the plate, slowly carving out this scene. I wonder what Meissner was thinking about as he made this? What kind of mood was he in? Did he want to capture the quiet stillness of winter? Or was he thinking about the strength and resilience of the tree itself, standing tall against the cold? The way he captures the light on the snow, it’s almost like a photograph, but there’s something else there too, something more personal. It makes me want to grab my own tools and join in this conversation about mark-making. Maybe I could paint the same tree but using wild, gestural brushstrokes and see what comes out. We’re all just adding our voices to this ongoing conversation across time.