Fire Bird 1946

Howard Schleeter's 'Fire Bird', is an etching that looks like it came to life through determined carving and careful wiping. I can imagine Schleeter hunched over a metal plate, wrestling with lines and shapes, trying to capture some elusive inner vision, and the tools probably felt as alive in his hands as the bird he was conjuring. Look at the way the bird emerges from a flurry of marks; it’s as if it's taking shape mid-flight, a creature born of pure graphic energy. I can almost feel him working at the precipice of representation and abstraction, somewhere between folk art and the avant-garde. Each line seems like a decision, a negotiation between intention and chance. This work makes me think of other printmakers and painters and how they too embraced the unpredictable nature of their materials, of someone like Durer or Dove. Ultimately it's this ongoing conversation across time that makes art so endlessly fascinating.