Fire! 1948

Rockwell Kent made this print called Fire! using lithography. The guy in the picture is really going for it, right? I mean, he’s in it to win it. Just look at his hand, how he’s really projecting his voice out into the atmosphere! And what about the drama of that smoke, and the fire? It's like he is the single point of defence against impending doom! It makes me wonder about Kent himself, what he was thinking, what he was feeling, when he made this. Was he ever at a fire? Maybe he was just responding to what was happening in the world. Artists don't exist in a vacuum. We’re always looking, always reacting to things and trying to find new ways to picture them. So much can be said with tonal gradation, and the way one mark can be used to simulate shadow, atmosphere, panic even. It’s a very human thing to do.