Niagara Falls (Horse Shoe), Verenigde Staten/Canada 1936

Here's a photograph of Niagara Falls, by Wouter Cool. It's all in grey, like a memory. I can imagine Cool setting up his camera, trying to capture the sublime force of nature in a still frame. What a challenge! What does it mean to try and capture the uncapturable? The water falls with such velocity it turns into mist, obscuring the rocks beneath. You can almost feel the cool spray on your face. But look closely, and you'll see the delicate plants clinging to the edges of the frame. They remind me of those tiny gestures, the small marks that can hold their own against a field of all-over painting. There is the big event but there are also the details on the periphery. Painters have always looked to the world around them for inspiration, echoing, responding, and challenging each other across time. And just like artists, we find inspiration in unexpected places, too. We should always embrace the open-ended and the unresolved, for the truest connections lie in the unpredictable.