Optical Shapes #3 1969

Judy Chicago made this work, Optical Shapes #3, with colored pencils sometime in the 1960s. It’s got these three circles, each divided into colored segments like a stained-glass window, and you can almost see the artist mapping out her intentions with each stroke. The colors are intense, like the inside of a kaleidoscope. I can imagine Judy sitting there, totally absorbed, trying to figure out how these colors play off each other. The subtle grid underneath makes me think of Agnes Martin, but then the explosion of color reminds me of Hilma af Klint's spiritual diagrams. It’s a funny thing about painting, isn't it? You're always in conversation with someone else who has a paint brush. And that's what great art is all about, one big conversation across time and space. We don't always know where we're going, but we keep painting anyway.