North from Pima Point, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona c. 1928

Here is a postcard of the Grand Canyon, North from Pima Point. It’s hard to know exactly when it was made or by whom, though ‘Fred Harvey’ seems to have been involved somehow. The colors feel both real and unreal, like a memory of a place. I can imagine someone carefully applying thin washes of color to capture the canyon's immensity. It's pretty mind-blowing. Each layer probably represents a decision, an adjustment. I wonder if Fred or the anonymous artist ever felt overwhelmed by the scale, like the canyon was too much to capture. Look at how the shadows cut across the landscape, defining the forms. It's a simple gesture, but it gives the whole scene depth and drama. To me, it looks like Marsden Hartley or maybe even Georgia O’Keefe might have seen it. Artists always build on what came before, so maybe this postcard had some influence, too, in some small way. It reminds me that every painting is a conversation, a way of seeing and feeling the world.