Sierkapitelen c. 1901

Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof made this sketchbook page, Sierkapitelen, with graphite on paper. I love seeing an artist's mind at work, right? Here are all these variations on a theme, architectural details, each drawn with a quick, sure hand. You can almost feel him trying out a bunch of different ideas, seeing which one feels right. Each little gesture is loaded with potential and possibility, like a conversation with himself. I bet Dijsselhof was totally absorbed in the act of drawing, pushing and pulling the forms until they sang. I can imagine him thinking about the balance of each, how the curves and lines play off each other. It is like he’s in dialogue with art history. This drawing isn't just about architecture, it's about how we see and interpret the world around us. Artists look, and then they look again, and in that process, they show us new ways of seeing too.