Wind-Blown Trees 1925

Lola Wheaton made this print titled Wind-Blown Trees sometime in the 1920s, and it looks like a woodblock print. It looks like it might have been really physical to make. Like, she might have needed to use her whole body and all her strength to gouge those marks out of the wood! I can imagine her pressing the block onto the paper, carefully aligning it, and feeling the texture of the wood beneath her hands. Maybe she even made a few mistakes along the way, but that's part of the process, right? The horizon line has a kind of vibrating energy. The final image is stark, simple, and really quite moving. You can feel the isolation, but also resilience. It speaks to the power of nature, and also to the power of art.