Untitled (portrait of young woman with chin on hand) c. 1940

This portrait of a young woman with her chin on her hand was made by Paul Gittings, but when, and with what, we don't know. What's cool about a piece like this is how it captures a moment of introspection. The soft grays and blacks make me think about the quietness of thought, the way ideas kind of float around in your head before they take shape. I imagine Gittings, carefully adjusting the light, waiting for the perfect moment to capture this young woman's inner world. You know? It's kind of amazing how a simple gesture—chin on hand—can communicate so much. It reminds me of other artists, like maybe Gerhard Richter, who play with blurriness to suggest the fleeting nature of perception. Artists are always riffing off each other, consciously or not, trying to expand our sense of what an image can do. Anyway, it's a reminder that art is as much about feeling and intuition as it is about seeing.