Man On Pier 1945

W. J. Sewell made this print, sometime in the 1940s, and it's called *Man on Pier*. I can imagine Sewell standing there, squinting into the light, his hand moving back and forth, back and forth, marking the surface, trying to capture that feeling of quiet melancholy. It’s all tonal variation, a dance between dark and light, creating depth and atmosphere. I wonder what he was thinking when he made it. Did he feel lonely like the man in his print? There's this incredible texture created by the pencil strokes, almost like a memory of a place rather than a depiction of it. Those lines are not just descriptive; they are emotional. The heavy sky feels just like the fog of our own minds when we're lost in thought. It reminds me of other artists who explore solitude and introspection, like Edward Hopper. We artists, we are all in this conversation with each other, riffing off each other’s ideas and feelings. It's not about having one definitive answer, but about embracing the questions, and trusting that, maybe, somebody else out there will get it.