Briefkaart aan Philip Zilcken Possibly 1916

This postcard by Maria Biermé looks like it was made with ink on paper and a few Belgian stamps. It really speaks to artmaking as a record of process. The overwhelming sense is of surface, of layers built upon layers. The ink is dense and creates a dark, almost impenetrable field of scrawled words. The eye is drawn to the stamps, their geometric order offering a stark contrast to the handwritten text. I find my eye drawn to the cancellation marks, obscuring parts of the stamps. The smeared ink and the circular stamp marks echo the act of covering up, of editing. These visual elements create a sense of intimacy, as if you're stumbling upon a private communication, a secret shared between the sender and the recipient. There’s something of Cy Twombly in its messy, almost frantic energy. It's a reminder that art, like life, is often about embracing the messy, the unresolved, the ambiguous.