Spondylus dominicensis Possibly 1962

Charles Arthur Wells, Jr. made this image of a Spondylus dominicensis sometime in his life. It looks like an etching, where the artist coaxes an image from a plate using acid, a kind of printing where line and tone are all. Look at the way the shell seems to materialize from a cloud of delicate scratches and bites. It’s like it’s emerging from the sea itself, or maybe dissolving back into it. Notice how he’s built up the form of the shell with short, nervous strokes, especially around the spiky edges. It gives the shell a kind of quivering, vital presence, like it could snap shut any second. The pale green ink feels both organic and slightly unsettling, like something you’d find growing in a forgotten corner. This work reminds me a little bit of Vija Celmins’s meticulous drawings of natural forms – both artists share a fascination with the quiet, almost meditative process of rendering the world around them, one mark at a time.