This image looks as if I moved in very close for a macro. I didn’t. The pencils were enormous. I deliberately removed all reference to scale, and instead concentrated on detail and rhythmic repetition. The more I looked at them, the more they resembled a stylized mountain range, with black instead of white snow on the peaks. Most items sold in a marketplace are not graphically unusual. But given an incongruous concept or vantage point, the ordinary can indeed become extraordinary.