The Two Pines, Switzerland 1908

Donald Shaw MacLaughlan made this print, ‘The Two Pines, Switzerland’ using etching, and it’s all about the dance of light and shadow, right? I love the way the artist uses line, almost like a spiderweb, to build up this landscape. Look at the clouds; they're not just fluffy things, but solid forms created with all these tiny, etched marks. It's like he's thinking about how light bounces off every surface. And those trees! They’re dark, bold shapes but when you get up close, you see how they're actually made of tons of little lines going every which way. It feels really physical, like you can feel the artist digging into the plate. It's this mix of control and chaos that makes the print so alive. It reminds me a little of Whistler's etchings, how he could make something so simple feel so grand. It reminds you that art is always talking to itself across time. It's never about having all the answers, but about keeping the conversation going.