Moon-Dog (Parhelion) 1952

James H. Kleege made this intaglio print, "Moon-Dog (Parhelion)," using black ink to create a dream-like otherworldly landscape. Imagine Kleege bent over a metal plate, meticulously etching these lines. The image unfolds with geometric shapes and radiating lines. It feels like peering through a telescope into some kind of cosmic event, a celestial dog star perhaps. I wonder what Kleege was thinking, drawing inspiration from the moon-dog phenomenon, which is an atmospheric optical illusion? It makes me think of Hilma af Klint and her own esoteric drawings. Look at the stark contrast between the sharp, pointed elements and the soft, swirling patterns, it's a push and pull between the concrete and the ethereal, a dialogue happening on the plate. Like Kleege, we, as artists, are all in conversation, riffing off each other's ideas across time and space, each mark leading to the next. It is a constant experiment where the possibilities for exploration are infinite.