Is Jumalon’s recurring subject of shadowy, atmospheric forests urge us to enter them, get lost within the branches, such that we forget that these are markings on sheets of paper.

Yet the dark, grainy, velvety textures remind us that charcoal is made from charred wood. Just as charcoal drawings are gradually formed through the adding of strokes, they are completed with gestures of taking away—erasing, lifting out the grain for highlights, and blending to create tonal values. Using these techniques, Jumalon imbues her fragmented landscapes with a somber mood, suspending us between the familiar and the unfamiliar. We realize that we are seeing both the outer world and the artist’s inner world, and we simply catch a glimpse of something much more vast and beyond comprehension.