Onderstel van een kast naar ontwerp van Mathieu Lauweriks c. 1910

This is a photograph of a cabinet design by Mathieu Lauweriks, its maker now lost to us. I am immediately drawn to the two flowers on the front of the cabinet. Imagine the patient hand that laid those designs! I feel for the artist, who is also a craftsperson and mathematician. I wonder if they ever step back from their labor, squinting at their creation, as they work away. The medium they use, wood, is often seen as fixed and unyielding. Here, wood is coaxed to express its plasticity as the craftsperson has a conversation with the piece to find the underlying form. The material whispers, and the maker patiently listens. It's an inspiration. We are all conversing with each other and the past. My work converses with other painters, just as Lauweriks conversed with the wood. I'm sure, just like me, they made mistakes, but it is within that uncertainty, we discover new possibilities.