One of the auspices of printmaking is replication. With ink and a press, we can multiply our artistic voices offering ideas of protest or hope or beauty to multitudes. Jace Laakso does just that in this work, Under Fire Maple. Jace’s colors are a select few, but are resonant and buoyant in their boldness. Blue and yellow and grey operate like sticks of colored dynamite in the manner of Vlaminck and Derain. This print presents us a duo of brilliant trees in the style of Henri Matisse dancing figures, each seemingly responding to the other’s undulations. A conversation between two sentient, suburban sentinels. 

The touch of red, marking the entrance to the human world transports us into the quiet of a neighborhood street ala Edward Hopper while reminding us of our travels between the stricture of our human architecture and the freedom and chaotic magic of the plant world .... Jerod Pietsmeyer, 2024