Walter Pashko studied painting in Hartford during the heyday of Chick Austin who made modern art, especially Surrealism, a great strength of the Wadsworth Atheneum. The GI Bill enabled him to go to Mexico City where he sought out artists who could teach him the techniques of fresco and mosaic. During his years there, he also learned how to make prints. Upon his return to America, he found a job at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts as an assistant to the printmaking instructor. Pashko was soon promoted to lead instructor when his supervisor retired. He remained at the School for over thirty years until a fall prompted him to retire in the early 1990s. Though he taught printmaking, Pashko regarded himself primarily as a painter and draftsman. He remained active in his retirement, producing the present works during his early seventies.

This drawing, made 22 May 2002, is primarily made with pastel colors accented with dark pencil strokes and touches of dark brown. A distinct feature of many passages is the contrast of sharply masked edges with softly smudged pigments. Though apparently made in a single day, the marks suggest many moods: tightly knotted tangles, long deliberate strokes, carefully prepared then quickly executed smudges. This is not a drawing that burst forth onto the sheet. Instead we sense the artist's pleasure in creative struggle. This series of drawings is partly inspired by the patterns and random debris left on a beach by the tide.

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