Untitled [New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 2005] Possibly 2005 - 2010

Richard Misrach captured this image of a house in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005. It is just a photograph, but to me, it feels as raw and immediate as any painting. I imagine Misrach standing there, camera in hand, feeling the weight of what had happened to these people, to this place. The pink spray paint screams against the mundane brick, a frantic, desperate act of communication. "We R OK," it declares, next to a phone number and the name "Jonnie." That graffiti, that raw, urgent mark-making, it's not so different from the gesture of a brushstroke. I see the artist searching, trying to make sense of the chaos and loss, just like any painter wrestling with a canvas. The information seems both deeply personal and somehow, universally resonant. I am reminded of other artists who engage directly with the world, using their work to bear witness to the realities of our time. Each mark tells a story, and each story contributes to a larger conversation about humanity.