Neither Beast nor Bird 1908

Walter Crane made "Neither Beast nor Bird" with ink and watercolor, and it's like a visual riddle. The way he uses this pastel palette, feels almost like a memory, or a dream. Look at how Crane draws the line around everything, it reminds me of coloring books, but with a wink. The animals are crammed together, caught between worlds. Notice the bat, smack dab in the foreground, rendered in grey-blue washes, but it's neither here nor there, beast nor bird. Crane's got this super-detailed, graphic style, almost like wallpaper. Like, who needs depth when you can have pattern? I see echoes of William Morris, the pre-Raphaelites, and the Arts and Crafts movement all rolled into one. Art's like that, a big conversation where everyone's borrowing and remixing. And, just like the bat in this picture, art never sits still, it’s always morphing, always a little bit of this and a little bit of that.