The quicker he played, the higher she had to jump 1920

Arthur Rackham made this drawing, "The quicker he played, the higher she had to jump," and you can see how he seems to have loved making marks, especially these scratchy lines, to suggest texture and movement. It's all about the making, the doing, you know? The way the ink kind of bleeds and pools in the lines gives it a ghostly, dreamlike feel. The composition is like a tangle of thorny vines and spiderwebs, with this figure suspended in the middle. I love how the figure’s dress and hair seem to merge into the surrounding foliage. All these thorny details makes me think of that moment where everything is tangled, and a little bit scary. Rackham has some of the same spirit as someone like Paula Rego, maybe, in the way he embraces the dark side of fairy tales. It reminds us that art can be a way of exploring the uncomfortable and ambiguous aspects of life.