Lake O'Hara and Mt. Lefroy, British Columbia 1930

Horace Prusher made this drawing of Lake O'Hara and Mt. Lefroy, in British Columbia, with what looks like pencil or ink on paper. It’s all about the making of marks. Prusher isn't trying to trick us into thinking this is a photo, it’s a personal translation of a place. There’s a lot of layering going on, especially with the trees, which are built up with repeated marks. You can see how the artist is thinking through the process on the page, not trying to hide a single stroke. Look at the mountain in the distance, there’s an uncertainty to the line. I like how the marks around the edges of the composition are lighter, as if the center of the image is where the most effort went. This reminds me a little of Charles Burchfield’s landscapes, that sense of a real place filtered through a very personal vision. Art's about conversation, after all, and about embracing different ways of seeing the world.