Prentbriefkaart aan Philip Zilcken before 1926

This postcard to Philip Zilcken by Hélène van Goethem looks like it’s been marked, stamped, and written on –the layers echoing like a history of touch. It’s as though I can feel Hélène's hand moving across the card, her pen scratching out a thought, a word, a connection. I can imagine her there with the postal card in front of her, thinking about the recipient, and trying to think of how to put the right words down, so the message is just right. She has to be deliberate because there isn't much space. Do you see the handwriting? Maybe she was thinking of what he might be doing while she wrote, and maybe she was trying to find a way to be kind, or maybe something else entirely. As an artist I appreciate the little things, because the little things can become big. Artists are always writing, marking, and painting over what came before, just as life is constantly being reshaped by the flow of time.