Detail, Side of Confessional 1937

Here's a drawing by William Kieckhofel, made with watercolor, of a detail of the side of a confessional. Looking at those brown washes, I start to think about the act of painting itself; of how the image emerged through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Kieckhofel here, imagining what it might have been like to create this particular piece. He probably knew what a confessional looks like, maybe he'd even been in one! I like the way the watercolor gives a sense of the material, the texture and surface, and the physicality of the architectural detail. The way the watercolor pools in some areas and thins out in others gives it an almost aged look. The semi-circular crescents create a strange pattern around the main central flower form. Artists are always in conversation, exchanging ideas across time and inspiring one another's creativity. Painting is this embodied expression which embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations, meaning over fixed readings.