Reaching for you 2010

Louise Bourgeois created this piece, Reaching for You, using watercolor and ink. Just imagine the act of painting itself – how this artwork might have come into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Bourgeois, imagining what it might have been like to create this piece. What she might have been thinking when she made it. The salmon pink watercolor is like a soft bed, stained with life, and in its center, a small figure reclines, reaching for a burst of blue ink like a flower. How the ink blooms and bleeds, it reminds me of the work of Helen Frankenthaler. This delicate gesture communicates so much feeling, intention, and meaning. Ultimately, artists are in an ongoing conversation, in an exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is such an embodied form of expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning.