Freedom 2 (Framed Print)* Virginia Cohn Parkum, c. 2020s Freedom 2 distills the horse — long a symbol of power, labor, and spirit — into a sequence of calligraphic gestures that feel both spontaneous and deliberate. Rendered in ink through a print process that preserves the grain and stippling of the surface, the animal’s form emerges from broken contours and shifting tonal densities. The body is not enclosed but suggested: negative space becomes musculature, breath, and motion. The horse’s extended stride and forward thrust convey release rather than restraint. Limbs stretch outward with an elastic rhythm, as if the figure is caught between grounding and flight. The head, slightly lowered, suggests momentum and resolve rather than submission. Parkum avoids anatomical finish, allowing the energy of the mark to stand in for physical mass; the vitality lies in movement itself. The print medium contributes a subtle texture that softens the ink’s authority, creating a vibration between presence and dissolution. Edges disperse into fine particulate dots, giving the figure an atmospheric halo that reinforces the theme of emergence — the animal seems to be forming and dissolving simultaneously. In Freedom 2, liberation is not dramatized but embodied through motion, breath, and openness. The horse is not contained by line or ground; it exists in the space it creates, an image of freedom defined by momentum and the refusal of enclosure. -Jonathan Flike *The title of this work was assigned by Visard Gallery.