Hello c. 1920

Rolf Armstrong made "Hello" with pastels, and you can really see the marks, like energetic scribbles and soft color fields, all working together. I can imagine Armstrong, maybe in a New York studio, trying to capture something fleeting. What was it like to be a commercial artist then? Imagine him thinking, "How do I make something that sells, but also feels real?" The colors are muted, almost like a vintage photograph, and yet there's something fresh about it, too. Like he’s responding to his peers, maybe even pushing back a little. There’s this one spot, near her shoulder, where the pastel is really thick and smudged. You can almost feel his hand moving across the paper. It reminds me that painting is just one person's way of seeing, thinking, and feeling. It’s the artist's way of making something new from what’s already there.