Cattle Brand c. 1936

J. Henry Marley made this drawing called ‘Cattle Brand’ using dark ink on paper. It’s quite simple: some angular shapes stacked on top of each other, and then a playful, meandering line at the bottom. I’m wondering about that single, snaking stroke. It’s so different from the rigid geometry above it. Maybe Marley was thinking about control versus freedom? The brand is about ownership, after all, but that line seems to wriggle out of any fixed meaning. It makes me want to pick up a brush and just let my hand move, see what happens. It's interesting how a simple black line can feel both so assertive and so open-ended. I wonder if artists like Cy Twombly ever saw cattle brands like this? You know, sometimes the most unassuming images can spark the biggest ideas.